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Reports have it that a Panamian cargo vessel carrying 25 Indian crew recently went missing in the Black Sea. An earlier report suggested that in November last year at least 10 ships sank in the Strait of Kerch, a channel linking the Black Sea with the smaller Sea of Azov to the north.

For nearly thirty years, the frequency of accidents in shipping has been decreasing but not any more. Accidents doubled in past five years, taking casualty rates back to the same level as the late 1980s. The probable reason: outright negligence of safety standards in ships in a booming market. The short supply of quality crew, the increasingly retention problems, faster promotion — all constituted a vicious circle. Focusing on hardware and systems is unlikely to make the problems disappear. The human and organisational factors will continue to be critical, even for running state-of-the-art ships which, it is claimed, will be harder to sink.

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Accidents in Black Sea channel

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