The Manx TaxPayers’ Alliance has been able to obtain the publication of a previously unreleased report into the grounding of the CEG Orbit. The CEG Orbit, as it was then called, ran aground on the Isle of Man near Cranstal in August 2021, and the documents are published in-full below.

“If the Isle of Man Government is to run a credible ship registry, it should be normal for such safety-related documents to be made publicly available. The Government should end its policy of secrecy-by-default, and should stop forcing the public to resort to enforcing their legal rights to obtain such documents,” said Michael Josem of the Manx TaxPayers’ Alliance.

At the time of running aground on the Isle of Man, the ship was registered as the CEG Orbit, and registered in the Isle of Man. Since that time, the ship has reportedly been renamed as ‘Leila’, and registered in Cyprus.

Until the Manx TaxPayers’ Alliance took action, Manx Radio reported the incident report had never been made public.

The report found that the ship did not make a planned course alteration due to the bridge being unattended at the time. The report determined that “the Chief Officer failed to follow a direct instruction from the Master by not calling him to the bridge to be temporarily relieved from his key function of safely navigating the vessel.” As a result, the ship ran aground on the Isle of Man because the ship “continued to follow its previous heading.”

“While, of course, citizens deserve privacy, the Government owes transparency. It shouldn’t require grassroots efforts by organisations like the Manx TaxPayers’ Alliance to uncover previously-unpublished documents like this. With the Chief Minister taking on the additional role as Minister for Enterprise, he should direct the department to end its policy of secrecy-by-default,” said Josem.

Source Documents

22 July update: Added the word “not” into the first sentence of the fifth paragraph to correct a typing error.