Life Saving Appliances (LSA) Flashcards
What is the purpose of an Emergency Positioning Indicating Radio Beacon? What frequency does it operate on? What are some of its features?
- Alerting shore-side rescue facilities
- Operates on 406MHz, battery last 48 hours
- Self-test facility for monthly battery and transmitter test.
- Float free arrangement
What should you do if you set an EPIRB of accidentally?
- Turn EPIRB off
- Call local user terminal or the country it’s registered to
What is the purpose of a Search and Rescue Transponder? Frequency?
Carriage requirements?
Battery Length?
How often should it be tested?
- Act as a locating device in case of an emergency
- Stored near survival crafts, one for each side of the vessel
- Interrogated by 9GHz X-band RADAR
- Battery lasts 96 hours in passive mode and 8 hours active
- Self-test facility (monthly), ensure there are no other ships the vicinity or send out safety message beforehand
What are the properties of all the different pyrotechnics and line throwing appliances?
- Rocket Flare - red - burn time > 40 secs to a height of 300m
- Hand flares - red - burn time > 1 min
- Smoke flare - highly visible - burn time > 3 mins
- Line thrower - can reach a distance of 230m in calm seas
What are the carriage requirements and markings of pyrotechnics?
Bridge
- 12 rocket flares
- 4 line throwing apparatus
Survival Crafts
- SOLAS Pack A (long international or domestic voyages) = 6 hands,4 rocket,2 smoke
- SOLAS Pack B (short international or domestic voyages) = 3 hands,2 rocket,1 smoke
Fast rescue craft
- 2 hands, 1 smoke
- diagrams for use and date of manufacture and expiry date
How fast should an immersion suit be donned? How much thermal protection should it give?
- Be able to donned within 2 mins
- Body temp falls < 2°C in 5°C water over 1 hour and 20mins if choppy
What is the procedure for Launching a Lifeboat? (11 points)
- All personnel mustered
- Toolbox Talk
- Rig the painter to a strong point forward of the vessel
- Open senhouse slip to release the gripes and unplug the power cable
- Make sure deck and water are clear of obstructions and people and lower to embarkation. FPD should be used for drills.
- Helmsman checks bung and rest of crew enter (should all be wearing lifejackets). Confirmation from all boat crew that they sat down
- Can be lowered by the brake wire (for real emergency) usually from the boat deck for drills
- Lower to the 1m above the water-line, start engines and confirmation from all boat crew that they in position and ready. Release the falls hook quick release wire
- Hydrostatic release unit should be in the green (off-load). Remove the safety pin, pull handle to release the falls hooks.
- Verbal comms that hooks are released and clear
- Release painter and move clear of the ship
What is the procedure for lowering a davit launch Liferaft?
- Remove portable rail, extend davit.
- Layout the embarkation ladder over the side
- Bring liferaft in its container to the ship’s side and attach bowsing lines
- Attach raft to davit fall
- Hoist and swing raft overboard
- Pull painter to inflate the raft
- Secure raft to ships side check for defects and board passengers
- Check for dangers below
- Untie from ships side and lower to the waterline
- On/offload hook to release fall
- Crew can hoist fall and ready the next liferaft
Procedure for recovering Lifeboat/Rescue Craft?
- Ensure hooks are reset as well as release unit locked in place
- Lifeboat you connect straight to the falls whereas rescue boat you connect to the painter first
- Fit FPD’s and raise to 1m above the waterline
- Check hooks are secure as well as release unit again
- hoist to the stowed position, engine off, ready for immediate use
How long should it take for two crew members to prepare a lifeboat
5 mins
How much list can a ship have and the lifeboats still launch
20°
Where can you find the information on the launching and recovery of survival crafts?
Manufactures instructions which will be in the SOLAS training manual
What is the SOLAS training manual?
A SOLAS training manual is a ship specific manual containing instructions on the LSA equipment carried and also information on survival, hazards of exposure, methods of retrieval and emergency repair of LSA equipment. Relevant for all crew and should be readily available.
It is important to check the SOLAS training when joining a new ship to see all LSA equipment and how they are operated.
Some topics it will cover are:
- Donning of lifejackets, immersion suits and Anti-exposure suits
- Boarding, the launching of lifeboats, rescue boats, liferafts, fast rescue boats, free-fall lifeboats etc
- Release from launching appliances
- Use of all survival equipment
- Use of all detection equipment
What maintenance should be done on the lifeboat falls?
- Falls should be inspected periodically and replaced as required or as a minimum every 5 years
What weekly inspections should be done on LSA?
- All survival craft, rescue boats and launching appliances visually inspected
- Engines of lifeboats and rescue boats run ahead and astern for not less than 3 minutes
- General emergency alarm tested
