Methods and means for analysis of crew communication in the maritime domain

The Human Element, among a group of maritime human factors terms, is used widely within the commercial maritime environment to incorporate many issues being addressed by maritime research institutions and industry bodies. In accident investigation losses are attributed frequently to Human Error, which itself has a variety of identifiable categories e.g. Human Communicative Error. This paper describes an analysis of a number of maritime accident reports in which a failure of effective crew communication played a central role in the causal chain. The analysis is based on an aviation industry accident investigation taxonomy, ADREP 2000 Taxonomy [8] and psychological theories of professional communication [13]. The paper discloses, accentuates and exemplifies the structure of problems related to maritime crew communication and problems related to different cultures and languages. It also explores the value, contribution and limitations of formalised taxonomies and analysis systems to maritime training authorities, when they are applied as tools in the analysis of accident reports. It also looks to highlight the need for further research into the sociolinguistic aspects of shipboard operation within the shipboard society not just during times of restricted manoeuvrability, but during everyday working and social communications in pursuit of recommendations to aid the reduction of occurrences of Human Communicative Error.