The Coast Guard has has closed its investigation of a June 30, 2019, lifeboat incident on the Floating Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Facility AUGER that resulted in the loss of two lives and a serious injury.  This was a Coast Guard District Eight Formal Investigation.  The incident occurred during a routine abandon ship drill and involved the inadvertent release of the lifeboat as it was being recovered by the AUGER. 

As a result of this investigation, there were ten Safety Recommendations and eight Administrative Recommendations associated with this investigation.  

The completed Investigating Officer’s Report and District Commander’s Endorsement can be found on the USCG DCO Marine Casualty Reports website. 

Any feedback regarding the recommendations in the report can be sent to HQS-SMB-CG-INV@uscg.mil no later than February 1, 2022 with the subject line ‘AUGER LIFEBOAT NO. 6 Recommendations’ and identification of the specific recommendation number in the body of the e-mail.  

Following the incident, the Coast Guard issued the following Safety Alert after the preliminary investigation identified a damaged control cable within the lifeboat’s releasing mechanism:

Safety Alert 03-20: CHECK YOUR LIFEBOAT CABLES – Damaged Control Cables Can Contribute to the Unintended Opening of a Hook

This blog is not a replacement or substitute for the formal posting of regulations and updates or existing processes for receiving formal feedback of the same. Links provided on this blog will direct the reader to official publications, such as the Federal Register, Homeport and the Code of Federal Regulations. These publications remain the official source for regulatory information published by the Coast Guard.