London Club Warns of Over-Reliance on GPS

[ancient_skipper]

The London P&I Club said a recent casualty involving a containership serves as a timely reminder of the consequences of failing to check navigation charts for information about corrections that need to be applied to satellite-derived positions.

In the latest issue of its StopLoss Bulletin, the Club refers to an incident in which a containership grounded as a result of total reliance on GPS, coupled with a failure to recognise that a significant correction had to be applied to GPS positions before they were plotted on the chart. During a coastal passage, the ship ran aground after a navigating officer commenced a significant alteration of course about half a mile before he reached the intended alter-course position...