Fishing boat sank in North Sea after pumps on decks left running

Six crew were rescued from a fishing boat which sank in the North Sea after pumps on deck were left running unattended, an investigation has found.

The Fraserburgh-registered Odyssey trawler was about 133 miles (214km) south east of Peterhead when it got into difficulty last year.

A Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report said deck wash pumps were running while the crew recovered fishing gear.

It rapidly flooded an area of the vessel with limited drainage, resulting in a “catastrophic loss of stability”. Safety recommendations have been made as a result.

The prawn trawler Odyssey capsized and sank on 29 October last year.

The alarm was raised via an emergency position-indicating radio beacon (Epirb) registered to the vessel.

All six crew members escaped onto a liferaft.

An HM Coastguard fixed-wing aircraft was sent, as well as a search and rescue helicopter from Norway.

A broadcast was issued for nearby vessels to support the search, and they were rescued by another fishing boat.

The MAIB said the key safety issues included the risk of flooding as the deck wash pumps were left running and unattended.

The crew initially mistook the developing list to be normal movement associated with recovering the fishing gear, which delayed their recognition of the flooding until it was too late to take any possible corrective action.

There was a lack of guidance in relation to flooding risk from deck wash pumps and the danger had not been addressed in the vessel’s risk assessments.

But the MAIB added: “The crew’s emergency preparedness due to regular drill practice likely helped them understand what to do.”

The MAIB is recommending that similar vessels put preventative measures in place.

It also called on the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to provide new guidance on the issues raised by the incident.