A crew member was killed in an accident which occurred during the dry dock refurbishment of the cruise ship Le Boréal in the port of Valparaiso, Chile on November 18th.

The popular Crew-Center reports that a young (25 year-old) crew member from Romania fell 75 feet after he slipped from a ladder placed on the ship’s deck.  Most cruise lines have “work aloft” policies and procedures which require that shipboard employees wear “personal protection equipment” (PPE), which includes safety harnesses, when they are required to work at a height of over six feet.

There should never be a situation where work is being performed at the extreme height mentioned in the Crew-Center article without the ship employees wearing PPE.  Such work has to be approved and supervised by senior officers who are required to enforce the work aloft procedures.

The Romanian newspaper Latercera first reported on the fatality. and identified the crew member as Andrei Madalin Circhea, from Constanta, Romania.

In other news involving Ponant, it’s Le Soléal cruise ship reportedly sustained damage to one of its propellers when the ship grounded on November 22nd while cruising through Kirke Passage in the Chilean fjords, according to the Valparaiso Daily News. The current cruise which began on November 7th has ended, and the roughly 220 passengers need to be repatriated. The cruise line cancelled the November 20th from Ushuaia, Argentina.