Safety changes urged after accidental lifeboat plunge off B.C.: TSB

RICHMOND — The Transportation Safety Board is urging stronger safety procedures involving lifeboats on commercial vessels after an investigation into a 2023 incident where a boat was accidentally dropped into the water, seriously injuring an engineer.

The board says in its investigation report that an engineer on the Golden Zhejiang bulk carrier was conducting a safety check on a free-fall lifeboat in the Trincomali Channel off the British Columbia coast when the release was accidentally triggered.

It says the sudden drop caused the securing cable to fail, sending the lifeboat into the water with the engineer inside in the Sept. 2 incident.

The report says that the vessel’s management did not require the engineer to conduct a risk assessment before getting in the lifeboat, and the securing cable was not certified as load-bearing as it should have been.

The board says the vessel operator, Columbia Shipmanagement Ltd., has since implemented safety changes to prevent the same thing happening again.

The investigation report is also urging vessel operators to make sure they have proper risk assessment and equipment-specific training in order to avoid similar accidents.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2025.

The Canadian Press