This incident is tragic.
There are things affecting the industry that are not mentioned.
Maersk is continuously monitoring fuel consumption. Constant warnings and messages are sent about fuel consumption. I always have enough reserve generating capacity while maneuvering to allow for loss of a generator.
This is not acceptable to Maersk. They want fuel efficiency. As CE I go with safety. It is my licence.
There is a lot of pressure to go with fuel efficiency over safety and I am sure there engineers going along with unsafe practices to satisfy the company.
They have also pushed to reduce maning in the ER during maneuvering. When something goes wrong you need available personal.This is to reduce STCW Rest HR violations. They know their scheduling is the problem and put scheduling above safety.
Once again they are more concerned about a red mark than safety. They tried to have the CE sleeping while maneuvering for rest hours. This was reversed after opposition and made optional but I am sure US flag ships are doing it due to pressure from the company and captains.
Another issue is qualified personal and DEI. These days unqualified crew will bring a complaint to the USCG or the company for being corrected on maintenance or job performance issues. Officers are running scared and personal know they can anonymously cause problems for supervisors, putting their careers in jeopardy. It is a bad time to be Captain or Chief Engineer. (Good luck!)
Could any of these issues have contributed to the accident?
Who knows. We do our best but sometimes shit happens.
Adventures in Engineering are not always fun. The engineers onboard had and are having a bad day.
The alarm logs will tell the story. The USCG should already know what happened. It will take a year to get their investigation report.
A faster preliminary report may help other incidents from occurring. That is just not how they work.
The loss of life is terrible. Condolences to their families.