According to a recent publication by MAIB, an incident occurred on August 23, 2025, involving the passenger and car ferry Lord of the Isles. During a routine drill aimed at testing the vessel’s fast rescue craft (FRC) launch system using stored power, an unexpected mishap led to significant damage.
The ferry departed from Lochboisdale in South Uist at approximately 3:58 PM for its scheduled route to Mallaig. Shortly after setting sail, crew members prepared for a standard exercise involving the FRC. The chief officer conducted a briefing to outline procedures before halting operations within harbor limits for safety.
The procedure outlined twenty specific steps necessary for launching the FRC via stored power. This included managing seven hydraulic ball valves located across two decks. Under guidance from the chief officer, crew members believed they had correctly positioned all valves and proceeded with preparations for launch.
However, when one crew member activated the launch cable as instructed by the chief officer, disaster struck-the uncrewed FRC plummeted approximately nine meters into the water below.
The master of Lord of the Isles quickly assessed that no personnel were injured during this incident. Following recovery efforts, an inspection by the chief engineer revealed that one critical valve meant to maintain hydraulic pressure was inadvertently left open-a detail not covered in their operational guidelines.
An investigation uncovered that during preparations for launch, BV9-a drain valve typically reserved for maintenance-was mistakenly opened instead of BV6 due to mislabeling issues; BV9’s label was missing while BV6’s label was improperly placed nearby. The color coding further complicated matters; BV9 had a yellow handle while BV6 was obscured behind it with a green handle.
This confusion resulted in insufficient hydraulic pressure when it came time to release and lower the FRC safely into position-leading directly to its damaging fall upon activation of its launch cable.
