The pilot claims DP World is hiring pilots who are inexperienced, giving them too little training, and putting them in charge of ships they’re not fully equipped to handle.
A pilot with extensive knowledge of berthing operations at DP World’s Jebel Ali Port has told Cruise Arabia & Africa that the collapse of a STS crane following a collision with a CMA CGM container ship was an “accident waiting to happen”.
According to the marine pilot, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the investigation following the incident, the turn into the Container Terminal 1 basin is notoriously difficult.
“I almost made the same mistake myself more than ten years ago,” he said. “The problem is that the turn is too sharp for these new VLCCs [Very Large Container Carrier]. I started to make the turn and the ship wasn’t turning fast enough. In that situation, you have two choices, either you go full astern and hope you stop in time, or you increase speed to get more headway.”
“It was an accident waiting to happen,” he said, adding that DP World is hiring pilots who are inexperienced, giving them too little training, and putting them in charge of ships they’re not fully equipped to handle.
Watch the accident here, about 50 seconds in: