Why most accidents happen after the plan was “completed”
Contents
Use the links below to jump to any section:
- Why Execution Is the Most Dangerous Phase
- The Moment a Plan Leaves Paper
- Execution Is a Human Process, Not a Technical One
- Monitoring: What You Are Actually Watching For
- Position Fixing vs Situation Awareness
- Detecting Plan Erosion Early
- Speed, Workload, and Silent Risk Growth
- When and How to Intervene
- Execution Failures Seen in Real Accidents
- The Professional Execution Mindset
1. Why Execution Is the Most Dangerous Phase
Most passage plans are approved before departure.
Most accidents occur after departure, often hours or days later.
This is not coincidence.
Execution is where reality begins to diverge from assumptions — slowly, quietly, and often unnoticed until recovery space is gone.
A plan does not fail suddenly.
It erodes.
2. The Moment a Plan Leaves Paper
The moment the ship gets underway, the plan becomes vulnerable.
From that point on:
- weather starts changing
- currents stop being predicted and start being real
- humans introduce delay, fatigue, and interpretation
- systems introduce latency and error
Execution is not about following the plan rigidly.
It is about managing deviation before it becomes danger.
3. Execution Is a Human Process, Not a Technical One
ECDIS, radar, and GNSS do not execute a passage.
People do.
Execution depends on:
- shared understanding of the plan
- clear division of bridge roles
- disciplined communication
- willingness to speak up early
Many execution failures occur because the plan was known by one person and assumed by others.
A plan not understood by the whole bridge team is already failing.
4. Monitoring: What You Are Actually Watching For
Monitoring is often misunderstood as “checking position”.
Position alone is insufficient.
Monitoring means watching for trend, not just location.
You are watching for:
- increasing deviation
- shrinking margins
- rising workload
- loss of recovery space
Good monitoring notices change before alarms do.
5. Position Fixing vs Situation Awareness
A ship can be “on track” and still be unsafe.
Fixing tells you where you are.
Monitoring tells you whether that still makes sense.
Effective monitoring combines:
- visual cues
- radar picture
- depth behaviour
- vessel response
- traffic evolution
Position without context creates false confidence.
6. Detecting Plan Erosion Early
Plan erosion rarely announces itself.
It appears as:
- small speed increases
- slight course shortcuts
- deferred fixes
- relaxed margins
- “just this once” decisions
Each change seems harmless.
Together, they remove the plan’s safety buffer.
Professional navigators treat small deviations as early warnings, not background noise.
7. Speed, Workload, and Silent Risk Growth
Speed is the most underestimated risk multiplier.
As speed increases:
- UKC reduces
- squat increases
- stopping distance increases
- time to react decreases
At the same time, workload often increases — traffic, alarms, communications.
This combination is where monitoring fails.
Good execution links speed decisions directly to margin protection.
8. When and How to Intervene
Intervention should occur before danger becomes obvious.
Professional intervention includes:
- slowing early
- widening margins
- increasing fix frequency
- calling the Master sooner, not later
- re-briefing the bridge team
Calling for help is not failure.
Late intervention is.
9. Execution Failures Seen in Real Accidents
Across accident investigations, the same execution breakdowns appear:
- plan not actively referenced
- monitoring reduced during “quiet” periods
- alarms relied upon instead of judgement
- deviation tolerated until recovery was impossible
- reluctance to challenge developing risk
The plan was usually adequate.
The execution was not.
10. The Professional Execution Mindset
Professional execution accepts one truth:
The plan will become wrong. Your job is to notice when.
Good watchkeepers do not ask:
“Are we following the plan?”
They ask:
“Is the plan still protecting us?”
If the answer is uncertain, the response is adjustment — not optimism.
Closing Perspective
Passage planning does not end when the plan is signed.
That is when responsibility begins.
Execution and monitoring are the bridge between intention and survival.
They are where discipline matters more than knowledge.
A plan that is not actively monitored is not a plan.
It is a memory.
Tags
passage execution · navigation monitoring · bridge watchkeeping · maritime safety · voyage management