Capt. Prem Kumar

Ship was a product carrier and was discharging Cargo Jet Fuel A1 at Los Angeles, USA.

Oil spilled on deck, luckily, crew noticed it and was contained and was not allowed to go overboard. Cargo work stopped and the contained spill was taken a waste tank. The fault was that one of the flanges was leaking. The gasket was renewed recently, and after renewal leak test was not carried out. The flange was tightened properly, and cargo work restored. Reported to port authorities as per requirements.

Lesson learnt:

Whenever a maintenance work is carried out on the deck on the pipe lines, leak test with soap solution should be carried out to avoid such incidents.