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Science, Engineering & Technology Award - Marine Accident Investigation Branch
Marine Accident Investigation Branch - Winner of the Science, Engineering and Technology Awards, sponsored by Government Office for Science
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) is a functionally independent organisation within the Department for Transport. Its role is to investigate accidents involving UK registered ships anywhere in the world, and ships of any nationality within UK waters. It is a small organisation of some 39 staff, all civil servants.
In August 2002, an international requirement came into force requiring certain merchant ships to carry Voyage Data Recorders (VDR). Subsequently the requirement was extended to cover all but the smallest merchant vessels.
The object of the VDR is to record all appropriate data in a ship, so that, in the event of an accident, investigators are able to conduct a technical analysis of the event. While the international requirement laid down the data that needed to be recorded, it did not specify any standards for how it should be recorded, downloaded, replayed or analysed. This has resulted in some 30 different VDRs being developed by manufacturers around the world, all storing data in different formats.
Following the loss of a ferry with 1,100 lives, the International Maritime Organization asked for and funded the deployment of an MAIB technical expert to Egypt to conduct the first ever underwater recovery of a VDR capsule.
Utilising GIS technology, MADAS provides a bespoke solution for marine accident investigation. Australia and Norway have recently bought MADAS, and other countries including Canada and New Zealand are looking to buy in to the project in the near future. MAIB is now recognised as the world leader in the recovery and analysis of data evidence to support marine accident investigation. This success has greatly enhanced the UK’s standing in the marine accident investigation field and in the maritime world in general, and has come at no cost to the Exchequer.
Last updated 242 days ago by Kevin Sorkin