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by rwallace 275 days ago
In several similar incidents, it was clear that the, or at least a major, cause of the accidents, was that the officers on watch had been forced to work overtime and deprived of sleep to the point of cognitive impairment.

How many hours had the officer on watch in this case worked that week? How many hours of sleep did he have?

And why is no one except me asking those questions?
3 comments
bell-cot 275 days ago
> Lessons

> It would be wrong to entirely blame the inexperienced OOW and poor performance of the bridge team for the incident, the investigation showed there were management failures that extended to the highest levels of the Navy. The pressure caused by the operational tempo, something the RN and USN would recognise, resulted in inadequate training time and personnel lacking sufficient experience in relation to their responsibilities.

Sounds like other people have asked. And the lack of time for sleep is only one aspect of the answer.

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rwallace 275 days ago
I read that paragraph, but my reading of it was different from yours. As far as I can see, it only discusses training time and experience. No mention of time for sleep.

Though yes, I do give it credit for going at least a little of the way - not far enough, but a little - in pushing back on the 'human error' scapegoating, in favor of asking questions about procedures and policies.

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bell-cot 275 days ago
Point. I read the sleep deprivation meaning into the phrase "pressure caused by the operational tempo, something the RN and USN would recognise" - because I'm somewhat familiar with the subject.

Try a search on "naval officer sleep deprivation", and notice just how many military, government, and adjacent sites have been talking about that specific problem. (For me, its role in accidents and collisions pops up in the 2nd sentence of Google's AI overview.)

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wjnc 274 days ago
Most likely answer, based on [1] is that this was investigated and not a contributing factor. I infer this from thinking that investigators know for sure that the operational awareness of the watch can be impacted by watch schedules.

Training for the test versus training for operational deployment.

[1] Safety Investigations by Other Countries - https://msiu.gov.mt/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/PDF-Safety_In...

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varjag 275 days ago
This is Norway. Nobody is forced to work to the point of sleep deprivation, doubly so in the public sector.
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