Emergency Contact Use of Mobile Phone Leads to Vessel Grounding Home Latest updates Publications Use of Mobile Phone Leads to Vessel Grounding 28 Mar 2024 Download page as PDF Sign up for alerts The Club would like to draw Members’ attention to an investigation report published by Marine Accident Investigation Branch MAIB UK ( Serious Marine Casualty Report No 12/2019 ), that pertains to an  unfortunate incident involving the grounding of a general cargo vessel.   The Incident The incident involved a general cargo vessel that ran aground during the early hours of the morning following a series of navigational errors. The vessel was eventually refloated but had suffered significant hull damage. Fortunately, no pollution or personal injury resulted from the incident. Although there were various contributing factors that led to the incident, the investigation discovered that the Officer of the Watch (OOW) started watching music videos on his mobile phone shortly after taking over the watch (at 0200 Hrs). He sat on the bridge chair, which was positioned where he was unable to monitor or operate any of the bridge equipment. Sitting alone on the bridge in the middle of the night created an environment that posed a high risk of the OOW falling asleep, and it is possible that he did so intermittently between 0230 and 0400 Hrs. For about two hours, the OOW was unaware of the vessel’s gradual deviation from the planned route. When he realised that the vessel was off-track, there was still ample time and sea-room to regain the planned route. However, he chose an alternative route that took the vessel over a charted reef of rocks thereby placing the vessel in danger. Despite warnings from the local Coast Guard Operations Centre (CGOC) and the local Vessel Traffic Services Officer (VTSO) that the vessel course was heading into danger, the OOW failed to take appropriate action until the vessel was 5 cables away from the rocks when he worsened the situation by altering c