Canada's transportation safety authority has found that a 2018 incident aboard a BC Ferries vessel, in which two employees were injured, was caused by an incorrectly secured lifeboat.
In April 2018, BC Ferries employees were doing man-overboard rescue training aboard the Queen of Cumberland vessel in Swartz Bay when a hoist cable broke, dropping a lifeboat and two ferry employees approximately 11 metres onto the water below.
Both crew members were injured, one of them seriously, and the rescue boat was damaged in the fall.
Neither employee has returned to work since.
Investigators with the Transportation Safety Board said Monday that a rope used to secure the lifeboat was too short, exerting excessive force on the cable as the boat was being raised. The resulting load caused the hoist cable to snap, dropping the lifeboat and crew members onto the water.
Following the accident, BC Ferries restricted employees from being on board the rescue boats while being raised or lowered, except during actual emergencies.
The ferry operator is expected to provide a statement on the findings Monday afternoon. This story will be updated when that statement is provided.
Darren Johnston, executive director of fleet operations at BC Ferries, said Monday's safety board report "didn't offer up any surprises" for the company.
"Our internal report came to very similar, and in some cases identical conclusions as the TSB report did," Johnston told CTV News.
"It's always difficult to hear findings that reveal weaknesses in the various layers of the fence that we have to keep our employees safe."
BC Ferries plans to introduce new fall-protection measures to allow employees back into the lifeboats for training exercises in the future, he said.
