MBB - Maritime Black Box
Overview
Background & policy context:
Recently major maritime accidents have resulted in heavy loss of human lives and severe environmental and economic damage, thus demanding the use of an on-board voyage data recording system covering ship performance, navigation and operation. This will allow the collection of essential data as to the circumstances and origin of the accident, thereby facilitating its reconstitution. The introduction of the maritime black box should therefore lessen the risks of accidents through a better knowledge of accident origins, improve the education and training of seafarers, improve passenger safety, reduce costs of accident compensation, and speed up the resolution of related disputes.
Objectives:
MBB aimed to develop and demonstrate a standardised maritime voyage data recording system similar to black box systems employed in the aviation sector.
The main objectives of MBB have been:
- to provide maritime authorities with equipment that can be used to gain knowledge on accident situations, in order to understand them better and ultimately to take the appropriate preventive and regulatory measures;
- to produce the requirement specifications for a voyage data recording system;
- to propose a legal framework for the implementation and exploitation of the black box;
- to validate these proposals by means of a demonstrator and on-site experimentation for the new maritime black box technology.
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