Enclosed Space Safety Needs More Than Training, Says Provider

Training Provider Says Procedures Alone Won’t End Enclosed Space Deaths

A leading maritime training provider is cautioning the industry against relying solely on updated procedures and instruction to solve one of shipping’s most stubborn safety problems: fatalities in enclosed spaces. According to a report by Maritime Executive, MarinePALS says the recent revision of the IMO’s MSC circular on enclosed space entry, while a welcome step, will not by itself stop crew from dying in tanks, holds, and other confined compartments aboard ships.

MarinePALS has already updated its own enclosed space training materials, including a six-part learning series and a computer-based training module, to align with the new IMO guidance. But the company’s leadership argues that the update highlights a deeper structural problem rather than resolving it.

Decades of Rules, Still Losing Seafarers

The core of MarinePALS’ argument is that enclosed space incidents have persisted for decades despite an accumulating stack of regulation, awareness campaigns, entry permits, drills, and mandatory training. Pradeep Chawla, CEO of MarinePALS, said the revised circular is necessary and positive, but questioned whether procedural refinement on its own can ever be enough given that crews are already well aware enclosed spaces are hazardous.

Chawla’s central point is that when safety depends on people executing the same checklist flawlessly every single time, human error becomes a matter of when, not if — and in an enclosed space, a single lapse can be fatal. He stressed that training remains an important part of the response, but should not be mistaken for a complete solution.

A Call for Engineering Controls, Not Just Paperwork

Instead of leaning further on administrative and procedural fixes, MarinePALS is pushing the industry to invest more seriously in physical barriers: access controls, interlocks, and other engineering measures designed to prevent unsafe entry before a crew member is ever put at risk. Chawla also raised the more fundamental question of whether some enclosed space entries can be eliminated altogether by redesigning operations to reduce the need for personnel to go inside in the first place.

He pointed specifically to fixed gas detection systems already fitted on tankers as a model worth extending across other vessel types, arguing that if the technology exists and works on one segment of the fleet, there is little reason it should not be explored more broadly.

What This Means for Owners and Managers

For ship owners, managers, and technical superintendents, this warning lands at a moment when compliance with the updated MSC circular will likely be treated as the finish line for many safety programs. MarinePALS’ message is a reminder that ticking the regulatory box — updated permits, refreshed drills, revised toolbox talks — does not automatically translate into fewer deaths if the underlying entry hazard itself remains unchanged.

This has a direct bearing on how condition and safety surveys should be scoped. An inspection that only confirms a vessel holds valid enclosed space entry permits and up-to-date training records is verifying paperwork, not verifying that the risk has actually been engineered down. Surveyors and superintendents assessing a ship’s safety culture may want to look harder at whether fixed gas detection, interlocks, or access restrictions are actually fitted and functional, rather than treating procedural compliance as a proxy for physical risk reduction. It also raises a fair question for charterers and vetting inspectors: should enclosed space risk assessments during pre-purchase or condition surveys start distinguishing between vessels that rely purely on procedure versus those that have invested in hardware-based safeguards?

An Unresolved Industry Debate

MarinePALS stops short of claiming it has the definitive answer, framing its position instead as a challenge to an industry that has repeatedly reached for training and paperwork as the default fix. Whether flag states, class societies, and owners are willing to fund broader retrofits of engineering controls — beyond the tanker sector where fixed gas detection is already established — remains an open question. What is clear from the source is that the debate over enclosed space safety is shifting from how well seafarers are taught to avoid the hazard, toward whether the hazard should be designed out of shipboard operations altogether.

Reviewed by Ibrahim Halil Ceylan, Marine Surveyor at Apeks Marine.