AD HOC PANEL #8 and the IMO

The forming of this panel preceded the formation by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) of a Large Passenger Ship Safety initiative - referred to as LPS. To assist this effort, the Society assembled a team to review the safety aspects of passenger vessels. This panel continues to explore several safety aspects including damaged stability, lifesaving systems, evacuations, and safety and risk assessments. This panel was first formed in 1999, but after a short burst of interest it went dormant. A new chair accepted the challenge to revitalize the ad hoc panel, in an area that is of high importance to SNAME and its members.

IMO Activities

The IMO initiative on Large Passenger Ship Safety (LPS) began in 2000 at the suggestion of the IMO Secretary-General, who questioned whether SOLAS requirements, much of which was written many years ago, duly addressed all the safety aspects of their operations, in particular in emergency situations. Since then, several of the technical IMO Sub-Committees have been tasked with aspects of LPS and many comments and proposals have been submitted by IMO Members, Observers, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO). The progress of these tasks has been included in Reports of the MSC and Sub-Committees to the MSC and of established working and correspondence groups. The links to web pages from which these reports may be accessed are provided below.

The IMO work on LPS has been guided by a philosophy that consists of five main points, of which two relate to ship design. One point is that future passenger ships should be designed for improved survivability so that, in the event of a casualty, persons can stay safely on board as the ship proceeds to port and the other is that alternative designs and arrangements providing equivalent safety levels should be permitted. With respect to flooding survivability in the event of grounding or collision, work concentrated on characterizing the designed survivability of existing large passenger ships with a view to link the design of the ship to the availability of SAR functions and the area of operation. Other tasks included study of the structural integrity of the ship after damage, raking damage issues, and measures to limit flooding through bulkhead penetrations and doors. The issue of subdivision and damage stability criteria of large passenger ships was being addressed through the multi-year effort of the harmonization of damage stability regulations assigned to the SLF Sub-Committee.

Harmonization and Large Passenger Ships

Approximately ten years ago, the SLF Sub-Committee was tasked to "harmonize" the damage stability regulations in IMO instruments based on the probabilistic method, rather than to "repair" the deterministic regulations associated with subdivision lengths and number of compartments flooded. The harmonization work was intended to involve passenger and cargo ships at first. The catastrophic losses of the Estonia in 1994 caused the timetable for Harmonization to slip - by many years. Then, three years into the Harmonization effort, a number of European Administrations and universities proposed an EU project that would provide sufficient basic knowledge for SLF to complete Harmonization. This EU project called HARDER began in 1999, and completed its extensive research in time for the papers deadline for SLF 46 - in June 2003.

In September 2003 SLF 46 was prepared to finish, but issues associated with large passenger ship assessments prevented completion of this task. The SLF requested guidance from IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) on how the harmonization effort should be completed. A number of papers with various proposals were submitted to the MSC. Some papers advocated increased survivability with increased ship length and numbers of person on board. Others wanted more study and a safety level equivalent to existing passenger ships.

Ad Hoc Panel #8 took a pro-active role in preparing for the deliberations at MSC 78 and developed a letter sent by SNAME’s T & R Committee Chair to IMO's Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) for naval architecture societies – the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA). The letter, which is available from the Panel’s activity web page (see below), recommended strong support of the majority opinion of the SLF Sub-Committee and offered assistance to draft a MSC "intervention" statement reflecting this opinion that, provided the other naval architecture societies agreed, could be made by RINA. MSC 78 agreed with the SLF Sub-Committee that passenger ship survivability should increase with increasing ship length and number of persons on board. The MSC further instructed SLF to treat this task with urgent priority with the view to complete the harmonization effort and deliver the draft amendments to MSC 79 in December for approval.

The Subdivision and Damage Stability (SDS) intersessional correspondence group (ISCG) carried out substantial work associated with the Harmonization effort and the LPS initiative as tasked from SLF 46, including recalculation of sample passenger ships. The results have been analyzed and possible formulations of the required subdivision index "R" that comply with the MSC 78 guidance have been developed. Via questionnaire, the ISCG considered these results. The questionnaire results that include the extensive discussion that occurred on this matter, including an alternative “R” formula, is available from the SDS ISCG website URL given below. While there are obviously strong opinions on this issue, it would appear that consensus is achievable at SLF 47 in September 2004.

Additional reference material is available from the Ad Hoc Panel’s website. Other related websites include: