200114 Training of VTS Personnel

Training of VTS Personnel
Report No. 200114

Own vessel was proceeding at slow speed in a designated channel approaching pilot boarding ground off an Indian port. An outbound vessel on approximately an opposite course, about 1.5 miles away on own port bow, was warned by the port's VTS operator that she was outside the channel and heading into shallow water. At the time, the two buoys near the edge of the channel indicating the limit of the shoal water, were missing. The VTS operator instructed the outward bound vessel to alter course hard-to-port. The course given would have resulted in a very close quarters ahead crossing situation with own vessel, which was avoided only by the outbound vessel NOT trying to cross our bows and by own vessel's full ahead and hard-to-starboard manoeuvre out of the channel, which fortunately our draft allowed us to do.

This incident was subsequently discussed with a pilot, who told me that the VTS watchkeepers had previously been employed as 'signal men' at the old signal station that the VTS had replaced, and that they had received no training in the collision regulations and had no experience in ship handling. The potential for VTS-assisted collisions, if there is no accepted international/IMO standard qualification for VTS operators, is amply illustrated by these events.