ALERT — ISSUE 1 — THE HUMAN ELEMENT

   We are all glad to welcome all participants of the international maritime shipping industry to the opening edition of the new Alert Bulletin released with our ultimate intention to raise the awareness of all people of the Human Element matters since they directly affect the commercial shipping. The present campaign presents a result of a three-year project run by the respected Nautical Institute under the sponsorship by Lloyds Register.

   The development of the technology has actually revolutionized the way in which the vessels and the systems installed on them are designed, handled and maintained; however, there is still a serious demand for the human involvement at different stages of the process despite all automation commonly installed on the vessels. Nearly eighty percent of all accidents occurring at sea can be attributable to the human error, often referred to as operator error.

   While the operator errors might be considered the immediate causes of the accidents, the root causes can be traced back to the people's influences on the design/operation of the vessels and systems. What it means is that the human element shall definitely be treated as a really critically important feature of all aspects of design/operation of the vessels and their systems. The aim of the authors of these bulletins is to capture the attention of the readers to the human element issues. This first issue of Alert is supplemented with the short video film.