ping new technology. In maritime education and training too, it is
necessary for us to educate young people who can see and recognize what nature is, and who
have an ability to solve the problems in various fields. As you know, there were many
seamen who knew nature well, and applied their knowledge to ship manoeuvring. Their
achievements in earth science, especially in the early stage of meteorology and
oceanography, must be kept in mind.
3. Accident and human factors
Ships are becoming bigger and the same as an accident once happens. If
a big oil tanker had a trouble, enormous amount of oil flew out and devastated natural
environments. So we have to try to prevent these disasters by all means. In Japan, a
proverb says, "A sailor has only a plank between him and perdition". That means
seafarers are always facing dangerous situations. There is no doubt that all technics on
navigation, seamanship, and other related fields are aiming at the safety at sea.
But an accident still occurs. We have to recognize that we never
prevent its happening. What we can do is to decrease the possibility, and to make every
effort to minimize the damage if an accident occurred.
In 1994, 826 decisions were given from Marine Accidents Inquiry
Agencies of Japan, and the number of ships investigated was 1,207 and the primary cause
factors numbered 1,645. This number is doubled the accidents' since multiple factors are
involved in many cases. Among them, 912 cases or 55% are from collisions, 248 cases or 15%
from groundings, 230 cases or 14% from engine troubles. Although it is said that the most
cause factors are due to human errors, 30 cases or 2% are judged on the defects of ships
and machines and on the inevitable reasons.
Airplane casualties are significant in big scale accidents. 902
accidents are counted in the past 33 years from 1959 to 1991, and 48.8% of the accidents
are occured in final approach and landing stages, 21.3% in take-off and climbing stages,
and about 80% among them are said by human errors. According to a report, 8.9% of the
accidents are judged by the defect of airplane itself. Although the ratio due to human
factors is higher, other factors should not be neglected.
Nobody doubts the importance of education and trainning to decrease the
occurance of accidents. But there is a doubt whether we can eliminate accident only by
them. The more progressing a technology is, the more sophisticated and complicated
instruments and systems are installed. This means the appearance of new type of accidents
unrelated to human errors, and we can take two airplane accidents as the typical examples
happened in Japan.
4. New type accidents
On August 12,1985, JAL B747's rear pressure bulkhead was destroyed and
its tail part was damaged, and the plane was paralized, then crashed into the mountain
resulting in the death of 520 crew and passegers. Applying fail-safe design, two sets of
control systems were equiped. Unfortunately, both systems were wired and piped side by
side, and destroyed instantaneously. For about 30 minute wand-
