Four months after the grounding of a bulk carrier in the port of Port Hedland, the national transport safety investigator has launched a review into the "serious" incident that compromised the ship's safety.
Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said the investigation had been opened after new information about the April incident was received.
"We're certainly aware of the significance of Port Hedland, not only to Western Australia but the entire Australian economy," Mr Mitchell said.
"Some of the new information that came to light led us to believe that potentially there is some benefit to us having a look more deeply at what's occurred.
"Most importantly, whether there any safety factors or any safety issues that we can identify to make sure that something like this doesn't occur again."
According to the ATSB, the Hagen Oldendorff was leaving port on April 9 when it reportedly experienced a steering system malfunction and made contact with the edge of the port's navigational channel causing "substantial" damage to the vessel.
The pilot called nearby tugs to assist, and was escorted to anchorage outside of the port while it received repairs.
The vessel was reported to be taking water into two ballast tanks, and it is understood the loaded vessel remained at anchorage off the coast of Port Hedland for more than one month.
Mr Mitchell said new information received by the ATSB indicated the ship grounded along the edge of the channel "for several hundred metres".
Procedural incident reviews
No injuries were reported, but Mr Mitchell said that did not diminish the significance of the incident and its potential impacts.
"The shipping industry really does underpin everything we do in Australia," he said.
"Just about all of our imports and a significant amount of our exports rely on the safe movement at ships, so we do take that role very seriously."
Mr Mitchell said the ATSB received about 18,000 notifiable incidents each year and investigated about 60.
Of those 60, Mr Mitchell said the investigation into the Hagen Oldendorff was one of 12 maritime incidents currently open.
He said it was not uncommon for investigations to begin months after an incident, depending on the supply of information.
"We can choose to pick up an investigation if new and significant information comes to light after the incident that really leads us to believe that there is something for us to uncover, and there's potentially improvements to be made," Mr Mitchell said.
The commissioner was unable to provide any further detail on the nature of the new information.
Testing hypotheses
Pilbara Ports Authority did not comment on the launch of the investigation, however in a statement at the time of the incident chief executive Roger Johnston said no environmental pollution occurred and there was no impact to shipping.
"Pilbara Ports Authority staff undertake extensive training to prepare for these kinds of incidents and responded quickly to assist," he said.
The ATSB's investigation is expected to be completed by Q3 2023 and will include interviewing the pilot of the vessel.
"We're looking at mechanical factors, we're looking at human factors, we're looking at the interactions between the pilot and the tugs," Mr Mitchell said.
"There'll be a whole range of things that we need to examine first, and then we'll start testing some hypothesis against that."
The ATSB will publish a final report at the conclusion of the investigation.
