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Analysis conducted by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has revealed that crew have, on average, under 11 minutes to recover a crewmate who has fallen overboard into cold water before the victim becomes unresponsive.
MAIB is a UK government organization, authorized to investigate all maritime accidents in UK waters and accidents involving UK registered ships worldwide.
The analysis of 20 accidents that occurred between 2017 and 2021 shows that the time decreases as the water becomes colder or the sea state rougher. In some cases, crew had just four or five minutes to coordinate a complex recovery under extreme pressure.
Separate MAIB data sheds further light on the scale of the challenge of getting a victim back on board. When examining the rate of successful recovery, MAIB found that of the 308 man overboard occurrences reported to MAIB between 2015 and 2023, tragically 40% led to a fatality.
In the recreational sector the picture was more concerning with the data indicating that almost half (47%) of man overboard occurrences that were reported to the MAIB from pleasure craft resulted in a fatality. In the fishing industry, this rose further still with just over half of man overboard incidents (56%) ending in tragedy…
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