1 The Maritime Safety Committee, at its eighty-sixth
session (27 May to 5 June 2009), having considered a recommendation
made by the Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Equipment, at its fifty-second
session, agreed that there was a need to clarify the application of SOLAS regulation III/19.3.3.3.
2
SOLAS regulation
III/19.3.3.3 requires each lifeboat to be launched, and manoeuvred
in the water by its assigned operating crew, at least once every three
months during an abandon ship drill. However, the regulation, whilst
requiring each lifeboat to be manoeuvred in the water by its assigned
operating crew, does not require the assigned operating crew to be
on board when the lifeboat is launched.
3 The Committee, therefore, agreed that the assigned
operating crew should not be required to be on board lifeboats during
launching, unless the master, within the authority conferred to him
by paragraph 5.2 of the ISM
Code, considered, taking into account all safety aspects, that the
lifeboat should be launched with the assigned operating crew on board.
4 Member Governments are invited to use the above
clarification when applying the requirements of SOLAS regulation III/19, and bring
it to the attention of all parties concerned and, in particular, port
State control officers.