Carrying the risks: safety learning & human performance at sea
Behind every voyage: pressure, perception, and decisions no procedure can fully cover. How does the industry truly learn from what goes wrong – and why do some lessons still fail to change practice onboard?
Seafarers carry world trade – and they carry the risks
[June 2026] An honest hour with accident investigators, human factors specialists, loss prevention leaders and bridge systems experts – on safety learning, human performance, and what it really takes to make lessons stick.
Voices from accident investigation, human factors, loss prevention and bridge systems – people who see, from very different angles, how the industry learns from what goes wrong at sea.
Missed part of the session or want to revisit key moments? Click the photo to watch the webinar recording.
Video
Key themes covered:
This was a conversation about what makes safety learning actually translate into safer practice – and how to recognise, reinforce and build on the things crews already do well.
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The gap between shore and bridge - How risk is understood ashore versus how it is experienced on the bridge – and what that mismatch costs in real operations.
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Where lessons get lost - Recurring patterns in how the industry learns – and the points where it only documents the lesson rather than absorbing it.
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Human performance as capacity - Why the people doing the work are a capacity to be reinforced, not just a risk to be controlled – and what that looks like in practice.
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Where simulation actually helps - The role of scenario-based learning in helping crews practise successful responses, not just rehearse the failure modes.
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What moves the needle - Practical interventions on loss prevention – from procedures, to peer discussion, to leadership behaviour onboard.
Thanks to our speakers:
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Mads Ragnvald Nielsen of the Danish Maritime Accident Investigation Board
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Thomas Koester of FORCE Technology
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Jacob Damgaard of Britannia P&I Club
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Capt. Jaquelyn Burton, EMBA, MS, AFNI, of Kongsberg Maritime
Moderator: Dr Joanna-Eugenia Bakouni from Maersk Training