IT BRIEF

TAMPERING WARNING

The London P&I Club has warned members about the dangers of tampering with equipment safety features following an accident involving a ship’s incinerator. The case involved a wiper who suffered burns to his hands and forearm as he loaded waste material into a batch-fed incinerator. The design of the incinerator was such that the material was loaded directly into the combustion chamber. An electrical interlock ordinarily prevents the door of the combustion chamber being opened until the chamber has cooled to a safe temperature. But in this case the wiper tried the chamber door and, understandably, presumed that the incinerator was safe to use when the door opened. Unfortunately, he was injured when the waste material caught fire as soon as he fed it into the combustion chamber. The initial presumption was that the interlock must have failed, but investigations confirmed that the interlock had been overridden by another crew member.