When the need for investigations of maritime incidents or offences of Liberian Maritime Law or other related problems arise, they are handled by the Liberian Registry’s Marine Investigations Department.
Marine casualty investigations are administrative proceedings that are essentially remedial in nature. Most of the Marine Investigations’ functions involve "incidents" which can be thought of as undesired events or occurrences that require intervention by the Administration. They can be events that directly involve the ship such as a detention, casualty, contravention (MARPOL 73/78, TSS and COLREG), an oil spill, and many others.
Vessel casualty investigations cover a variety of incidents including, but not limited to; fire, explosion, collision, grounding, contact, heavy weather damage, hull cracking and defects.Casualty investigations also include looking into possible violations of law or failure on the part of personnel, shipowners, or ship operators, which could result in personnel action against licenses, certificates of competency or seafarer documents. Incidents may also be personnel related such as death or an injury, failure to properly perform duties, crew grievances, or an act of fraud or misconduct. There also may be an interaction between "incidents" such as a shipboard explosion that injures a seafarer or improper navigation that results in a vessel grounding or collision. Other incidents may relate to issues such as embargoes, treaties, tariffs, desertion, stowaway, crew wages issues, etc.
SOLAS Chapter 1, Regulation 21 requires Administrations to investigate certain casualties and to notify the IMO of the results. The Liberian Administration will investigate casualties occurring on Liberian-flagged vessels when an investigation may assist in determining what changes may be desirable to the present regulations.
For information on reporting a marine casualty, injury or accident, please visit the Reporting page on our website.
For additional information, please contact:
Capt. Yan N Kyaw, Director, Marine Investigations
22980 Indian Creek Drive, Suite 200
Dulles, VA 20166 USA
Tel: +1 703 251 2453
Fax: +1 703 790 5655
Email: investigations@liscr.com
