CMI Marine Accident Investigation Procedures 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under 46 CFR Part 4, which entity has primary jurisdiction for investigating a marine casualty involving a documented U.S. vessel on the high seas?
- NTSB
- U.S. Coast Guard (Correct answer)
- Flag state of the vessel
- Port state control authority
Correct answer: U.S. Coast Guard
The U.S. Coast Guard has primary jurisdiction under 46 CFR Part 4 for investigating marine casualties involving U.S. documented vessels, including those on the high seas.
Question 2: When preserving physical evidence at a marine accident scene, what is the investigator's first priority?
- Photographing all damage immediately
- Ensuring the safety of personnel still aboard (Correct answer)
- Seizing the vessel's logbooks
- Interviewing the officer of the watch
Correct answer: Ensuring the safety of personnel still aboard
Life safety always takes precedence over evidence collection; the investigator must confirm the scene is safe before undertaking any evidence preservation activities.
Question 3: Which document is considered the primary official record of a vessel's movements and is given high evidentiary weight during a marine investigation?
- Deck log (official logbook) (Correct answer)
- Voyage plan
- Port state control report
- Master's standing orders
Correct answer: Deck log (official logbook)
The official deck log is a legal record maintained under maritime law and carries strong evidentiary weight as the contemporaneous record of a vessel's operations.
Question 4: The 'human factors' component of a marine accident investigation primarily examines which of the following?
- Structural integrity of the hull
- How crew decisions and actions contributed to the casualty (Correct answer)
- Adequacy of charts and navigation publications
- Engine maintenance schedules
Correct answer: How crew decisions and actions contributed to the casualty
Human factors analysis focuses on cognitive, physiological, and organizational influences on crew behavior that may have contributed to an accident.
Question 5: During a post-casualty interview, an investigator should use open-ended questions primarily because they:
- Allow the investigator to control the pace of the interview
- Reduce the risk of the witness invoking their Fifth Amendment rights
- Encourage narrative responses that may reveal unexpected details (Correct answer)
- Ensure answers are limited to verifiable facts
Correct answer: Encourage narrative responses that may reveal unexpected details
Open-ended questions prompt witnesses to describe events in their own words, which often surfaces information the investigator had not anticipated.
Question 6: A 'barrier analysis' technique in marine accident investigation is used to:
- Determine the structural barriers that failed during a flooding casualty
- Identify failed safeguards that should have prevented the accident or mitigated its severity (Correct answer)
- Establish a legal barrier between the investigator and the operator
- Assess the effectiveness of watertight doors during an emergency
Correct answer: Identify failed safeguards that should have prevented the accident or mitigated its severity
Barrier analysis systematically identifies physical, administrative, and procedural safeguards that were absent, failed, or bypassed, allowing each causal layer to be mapped.
Question 7: Under IMO Resolution A.849(20), the Code of International Standards and Recommended Practices for a Safety Investigation into a Marine Casualty, a 'very serious marine casualty' is defined as one that results in:
- Total loss of the ship, or a death, or severe damage to the environment (Correct answer)
- Loss of a crew member overboard
- Damage exceeding $500,000 USD
- A grounding in a designated environmentally sensitive area
Correct answer: Total loss of the ship, or a death, or severe damage to the environment
IMO Resolution A.849(20) classifies a casualty as 'very serious' when it results in total loss of the vessel, loss of life, or severe pollution damage.
CMI Marine Accident Investigation Procedures 2
Under 46 CFR Part 4, which entity has primary jurisdiction for investigating a marine casualty involving a documented U.S. vessel on the high seas?