Originally Posted by
jack11111
I believe the Exxon Valdez disaster was not technical failure but total malfeasance by the Master of the ship.
Actually it has most of the same elements as the MAX catastrophe
When the tanker route was first approved Exxon was required by the US Coast Guard to have many safety measures in place to reduce the chance of an accident.
Exxon immediately worked to water down the requirements to save money. They succeeded in
1) Elimination of the requirement for extra training for the ships officers
2) Elimination of the requirement for an extra officer so that the bridge watch would be well rested for the outbound passage
3) Elimination of the speed limit in the channel. This was the final cheese hole. Under the original requirements the speed was kept low because of floating ice in the channel from the glacier next to the channel. At the low speed the ship could just plow through ice and not be damaged, But to save 3 hrs of voyage time Exxon got permission to go to sea speed in the channel.
At sea speed the ship could not hit ice without sustaining damage and the reason the ship hit Blythe reef which was on the opposite side of the outbound channel, was the tired untrained mate who was maneuvering trying to avoid ice lost situational awareness and by the time he realized he was in trouble the situation was not recoverable
That sound familiar ?