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NavalRunning the monthly emergency drill

It is time for this month's drill on a commercial fishing vessel. As the person trained to run it, you take everyone on board through the ten contingencies of the federal rule, on board and as if each emergency were real: the equipment comes out, the alarms are tested and the suits go on. The master or person in charge must make sure it happens at least once each month.

Free to start

Scenarios

  • The monthly drill on a commercial fishing vessel.
  • Instruction given with videos and a discussion, apart from the drill.
  • An inspected vessel where more than 25 percent of the crew missed last month's drills.

The steps

  1. Make sure the drill and instruction reach each person on board at least once this month.
  2. Run it on board the vessel, as if there were an actual emergency.
  3. Have every person on board take part.
  4. Cover abandoning the vessel, fighting a fire in different places on board and recovering a person from the water.
  5. Cover minimizing the effects of unintentional flooding, and launching survival craft and recovering lifeboats and rescue boats.
  6. Cover donning immersion suits and other wearable flotation devices, and a fireman's outfit and breathing apparatus if the vessel has them.
  7. Cover making a voice radio distress call and using visual distress signals, activating the general alarm and reporting inoperative alarm and fire detection systems.
  8. Break out and use the emergency equipment, test every alarm and detection system and don protective clothing.

Safety rules that stop the station

  • No one may run the drill or give the instruction without being trained in the proper procedures for it.

To pass

  • Every person on board familiar with their duties and responses in the ten contingencies, drilled at least once a month as if it were real.
  • The person running the drill does not have to be the master, the person in charge or a member of the crew.
  • Videos followed by a discussion led by someone familiar with the contingencies count as instruction, but never as the drill or as the safety orientation.
  • On inspected vessels, every crewmember takes part in at least one abandon-ship drill and one fire drill every month, within 24 hours of leaving port if more than 25 percent missed last month's, and before sailing on a new vessel, after a major modification or with a new crew.
  • On inspected vessels, the equipment used goes straight back to fully operational, faults are remedied as soon as possible and each drill is recorded in the official logbook.

Official source

U.S. Coast Guard · 46 CFR 28.270 and 199.180

46 CFR Part 28: Requirements for Commercial Fishing Industry Vessels (28.265 Emergency instructions, 28.270 Instruction, drills, and safety orientation)

The eCFR publishes 46 CFR Part 28 free: the emergency instructions every commercial fishing vessel posts, its lifesaving equipment and the monthly drills.

Making Synapses is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by the U.S. Coast Guard or any maritime authority. Regulations are named only to describe the content.