Molly Murray | Delaware Online

Over the past 13 months, four U.S. river pilots -- men who provide navigation expertise through shipping channels -- slipped and fell while trying to climb ladders on the side of freighters or other shipping vessels.

Three of the pilots died. The fourth, Capt. Lynn Deibert, 52, of Virginia Beach, Va., is missing. Deibert fell from a boarding ladder at 11 p.m. Feb. 4 as he was attempting to board a 645-foot-long coal freighter, Energy Enterprise, that was 2 miles southeast of Cape Henlopen.

While Deibert's body has not been found, he is presumed to have perished because the 39-degree ocean water temperatures would have made survival over more than a few hours unlikely. The Coast Guard called off the search for Deibert on Feb. 5 after 14 hours.

River piloting can be a dangerous occupation and the greatest risk occurs as pilots transfer to and from the ship they are helping navigate.

In 2005, the most recent year statistics are available, the U.S. Department of Labor reported seven fatalities among U.S. residents who provide navigational services to the shipping industry.

"It's more of a coincidence than anything else," said Paul Kirchner, executive director and general counsel for the American Pilots' No one is certain how Deibert came to fall from the boarding ladder.

Most pilots have horror and near-miss stories about boarding ladders, said retired Delaware Bay and Delaware River pilot A. Judson Bennett. Ladders can be poorly maintained or they can pitch and turn in high winds and heavy seas, he said.

If it's rough and cold, sea spray can make them slippery and icy, he said.

Ladder safety rules

The American Pilots' Association and the International Maritime Pilots' Association are seeking new regulations to make pilot transfers safer.

Last fall, during a meeting of the International Maritime Organization Marine Safety Committee, pilot groups asked for stronger rules on ladder safety. The pilots want to see standards improved and better enforcement of existing standards, Kirchner said.

Some ladders are substandard, illegal or not properly maintained, Kirchner said.

Kirchner said there is no common thread among the four accidents. On Friday, five days after Deibert's accident, the Wilmington office of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration had not yet been notified, a spokesman in the office said. Typically, employers have eight hours to report accidents to OSHA. And the Coast Guard also typically investigates, according to a spokesman in Atlantic City.

Ladder accidents involving pilots aren't uncommon -- typically numbering a few worldwide each year.

But the four serious accidents in the United States since last January have ramped up the issue.

Fatal incidents

The first fatal accident occurred Jan. 9, 2006, when a Columbia River bar pilot was coming down a ladder from a cargo ship. Seas were 18 to 20 feet. He fell into the Pacific Ocean and drowned.

The second accident was Jan. 29 last year when a Hawaiian pilot fell between a cruise ship and a pilot boat in 5-foot seas. He was also killed.

The third incident occurred Oct. 24, when a Boston pilot was climbing a boarding ladder to a bulk cargo carrier that was moored in a shipping terminal. He fell to his death on the deck of a barge that was moored alongside the ship.

Ladders used by pilots can't be more than 29 1/2 feet and there are rules about how they must be rigged and maintained.

No safety device

But Kirchner said that doesn't always happen. So far, efforts to come up with a workable safety device that could provide pilots with an extra measure of safety -- like the clips and harnesses used by sailors when they go aloft -- have not been successful, he said. There have been devices developed but so far, pilots associations worry that they would increase the risk of a problem rather than lessen it, Kirchner said.

"We'll look at anything," that could improve safety, he said.

The bigger worry, though, is the condition of the ladder, he said.

Pilots are placing their trust in the equipment provided by the shipping companies.

The ladder must be rigged properly so it won't break loose or slip once the pilot starts to climb, Kirchner said.

Accident 'really hits home'

Deibert, a longtime pilot, was president of the Chesapeake and Interstate Pilots, federal pilots licensed to guide domestic ships.

Deibert was boarding to pilot the Energy Enterprise into Delaware Bay, up the Delaware River and through the C&D Canal to Baltimore when the accident occurred, said Roger Dean Warren Jr., vice president of the Chesapeake and Interstate Pilots.

Capt. Drew Hodgens, with the Pilots' Association for the Bay and River Delaware, said Deibert's fall "really hits home because it was right here in our backyard."

A pilot for 11 years, Hodgens said he hasn't had a personal experience with a ladder problem.

But "the transfer process is a tricky one. You certainly have to pay full attention. Nobody here takes it for granted at all."