Incident investigation and corrective action
What is being checked
The inspector is checking whether the company process for incident reporting and investigation is understood, applied onboard and capable of producing traceable decisions and improvement rather than completed forms alone.
Ready onboard
0/6 completePractice questions
Answer aloud, then open the preparation point.
1What is the purpose of incident reporting and investigation?
Explain how it controls immediate control, evidence preservation, causal analysis, human and organisational factors, corrective action and learning and give a recent shipboard example.
2Show one complete example.
Trace initial report, investigation, evidence, causal analysis, actions and effectiveness review from initiation to verified closure.
3Who verifies the quality of the process?
Identify the responsible shipboard and shore roles and how weak or overdue entries are challenged.
4How are ratings involved?
Give a specific example of participation, feedback or use rather than relying only on signatures.
5What changed because of the last finding?
Identify the control, equipment, training or planning change and show that effectiveness was checked.
Where an observation may arise
The process did not define immediate control, evidence preservation, causal analysis, human and organisational factors, corrective action and learning.
Records were generic, copied or completed after the event without supporting evidence.
Personnel affected by the process could not explain it or provide an example.
Actions lacked ownership, due date, verification or overdue escalation.
The same weakness recurred without effective learning: events were attributed only to individual error and systemic causes remained.
Dates or facts did not reconcile across initial report, investigation, evidence, causal analysis, actions and effectiveness review.
Past observations for practice
The RCA and corrective actions did not reflect the mitigation measures in the preventive actions.
Master's practical note
Select the most recent imperfect example, not the neatest one. A functioning safety-management process should expose weakness, assign action and verify improvement.
Equipment boundary and references
Equipment boundary: This guide addresses onboard implementation. Company reporting thresholds, shore investigation authority and confidentiality controls remain governed by the SMS.
References
- OCIMF SIRE 2.0 Question Library Part 1, Version 1.0, Question 5.7.1
- ISM Code sections 9 and 12
- OCIMF TMSA Element 8
Last reviewed: 2026-09-13