‘Chairway to heaven’ balloonist to attempt Atlantic crossing in unique lifeboat.

Thirty eight year old cluster balloonist Jonathan Trappe has plans to ‘fly’ 2,500 miles across the Atlantic in the middle of the next year; he will attempt the crossing in a seven-foot lifeboat carried by 365 helium balloons. The gondola-flight will take off from Maine, USA, and head for France- although Jonathan could eventually land anywhere ‘between Norway to North Africa,’ depending on winds.

Unlike traditional hot air balloonists, cluster balloonists use a series of helium inflated rubber balloons attached to a harness to stay aloft. Altitude is controlled by deflating individual balloons or jettisoning ‘ballast’- which may include bottled water, or sandbags- even food.

FAA licenced pilot Jonathan became the first cluster-balloonist to fly across the English Channel in 2010, departing from Challock, England and landing safely in a farmer's cabbage patch not far from Dunkirk, France. Two years earlier, Jonathan had climbed to an altitude of almost fifteen thousand feet in an ordinary office chair attached to a cluster of balloons. The four hour and fifty mile flight, dubbed ‘Chairway to Heaven,’ reignited his passion for ballooning. He says he wants to make the Atlantic crossing- that, according to UK’s Telegraph, has seen five men die attempting- because "One day we can look back and say: 'Humankind were able to pull this off. They did it.'"

A North Carolina, USA resident, Jonathan’s unique gondola will have an open roof covered with a canopy to protect him from frostbite and winds; it will also be equipped with oxygen that Jonathan will need at higher altitudes. In case he has to ditch into the ocean, Jonathan will change out of his UV protection suit and wear an immersion suit instead, ‘deballast’ sand or deflate balloons and land in the ocean, where the lifeboat will keep him afloat. “I'll be equipped with more food and water than I need so I can discard them too," he says.

Jonathan is taking lessons in lifeboat sailing to cover the eventuality that he will have to ditch at sea. He is also trying to raise $300,000 online- besides putting in $170,000 of his own money- to make his adventure a success. He may ascend to as high as 25,000ft during the transit, which would beat his previous world altitude record of 21,600ft. He will also have to fly ten times the distance of another of his world records to succeed in the Atlantic crossing.

Jonathan, who already holds records for crossing the Alps and flying the most cluster balloons, says, "I didn't wake up one day and think: 'I'm going to fly across the Atlantic. Every attempt before this was geared towards this flight. I've been training for a long time."

The Haldia-HBT controversy: Singur redux?

The violence and lawlessness that has led to ABG’s pullout from Haldia port will only reinforce West Bengal’s reputation as being business unfriendly, observers say, pointing out that the situation has similarities with the Singur mess that resulted in the Tata’s exit from the State. To add to the confusion, the Kolkata Port Trust told the High Court on Nov 5 that it wanted to recall a plea made earlier to withdraw a petition last month- that asked ABG Haldia Bulk Terminals (HBT) to continue operations at the port.

HBT is a joint venture between Mumbai-based ABG and French company LDA. After weeks of rising lawlessness at the port, and after police protection was provided to the company at high cost, it finally decided to pull out of Haldia when three of its top officials- and a wife and child- were abducted at gunpoint by fifty or so workers belonging to the ruling Trinamul Congress. They were later released. In response to the outcry, the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said these reports were “a mere exaggeration of the actual fact,” and were “created by the media”.

HBT announced a few days ago that it was retrenching all is 348 employees and winding up operations at Haldia, and that it was, in the present lawless climate, no longer bound to honour its 2010 contract to operate the terminal for ten years. After port authorities threatened to retain HBT’s equipment, HBT CEO Gurpreet Malhi responded, “These assets are owned by the company. Any attempt to prevent us from moving them will be illegal and tantamount to theft." HBT has invested about Rs 150 crore at Haldia, and says it increased productivity threefold, even as it has accumulated losses to the tune of 60 crore rupees.

Even earlier, on October 19, the Calcutta High Court had ordered the WB government to provide HBT a safe environment to operate at the Haldia Dock Complex. HBT paid around Rs.17.5 lakhs towards the deployment of police personnel for this privilege.

Trade union leaders in West Bengal- backed by workers of the ruling Trinamul Congress- say that tensions were raised following the retrenchment of 275 staff at the port in the middle of September. Malhi had said earlier that vested interests were behind the violence, and had threatened to pull out of Haldia even before its personnel were abducted.

Pointing to the abduction of its officials and a family, Malhi said, "We cannot work in an environment where the authorities responsible for law and order and success of the project have openly renounced and abandoned their responsibilities."

“Not the way to behave with employees”- Shipping Minister warns shipowners in Chennai.

In the aftermath of the ‘Pratibha Cauvery incident,’ the spotlight seems to be focused- even if temporarily- on substandard ships and shipowners. Shipping Minister GK Vasan has now threatened action against those that do not pay wages to their crew on time. Disclosing that the central government would take steps- through the Directorate General of Shipping- in this regard, Vasan told reporters in Chennai that it was ‘unfortunate’ that seafarers were not paid salaries for months.

When reporters asked the Minister pointedly about the non-payment of salaries to the crew of Pratibha Cauvery and Pratibha Warna detained in Chennai, Vasan said, "See, there are thousands of ships in the country. We are taking up the cases which are coming to us. We are very strict in that. This is not the way (companies) should behave with their employees."

The Minister was on an official trip to Chennai, during which he took stock of the Cauvery salvage operation and also took time to visit the Indian Maritime University (IMU) on the fourth university day celebrations. Addressing trainees at that institution, he said, “Over the last six years, our maritime professionals have developed great capabilities for handling technologically advanced or technologically difficult ships. This has led to a very high demand for our marine engineers though we train and educate more than 3,000 marine engineers every year.”

Vasan compared the situation in the maritime sector with that in IT. “It has been proved that only those countries which invest well in research and development move ahead of others. The research in the maritime sector, which is at its nascent stage, will be developed by the university in various disciplines with the aim of marching ahead in this sector. Indian IT industry underwent a major revolution in the supply of manpower for global needs. Similar opportunities and possibilities exist now for India in the maritime sector. This trend will not only enhance the social and economic status in the maritime States but also greatly contribute to the country’s economy,” he told the assembly.

Earlier, Vasan had revealed to reporters that he had formally asked IMO Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu to explore the possibility of setting up a regional branch of Malmo based World Maritime University (WMU) in India, and for the need for closer cooperation between IMU, WMU and the International Maritime Legal Institute, Malta. "Despite the recession, there has been a growth of maritime trade in India and institutes like IMU can bridge the gap between supply and demand of sailors and merchant engineers," Vasan said.

The Minister presented a cheque of 50,000 rupees each to five fishermen who had risked their lives in saving some of the Cauvery crew after she grounded. Of the many unanswered questions that were raised after that incident, Vasan said that the DG Shipping inquiry was underway and would be completed in a month. "Whatever action required to be taken by the Ministry, it will be taken," he said. There have been reports that the seaworthiness certificate of the vessel had expired on October 1; Vasan said that the DGS was looking into it.

"Whenever a complaint is received to the ministry, I am taking it up very seriously to the concerned company through the Director General Shipping and we see to it that there is no injustice to seafarers," he said.

Is Europe planning to dump hazardous ships in South Asia?

The European Environment Council meeting in Luxembourg in late October has seen environmentalists applauding progressive EU governments like Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Estonia, and Sweden for supporting the existing ban on the export of end-of-life ships containing hazardous wastes to developing countries. All this at a time when Europe seems to be contemplating taking retrograde steps in recent months, with some States having succeeded in pushing a European Union proposal on ship recycling that would effectively legalise the export of end-of-life ships containing hazardous wastes to countries in South Asia. 

"The proposal is both profoundly immoral and illegal," Roberto Ferrigno of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform had said earlier. “This will render European governments powerless in preventing exports of asbestos and PCB laden ships from being sent to developing countries and putting vulnerable workers at risk in contravention of our own treaty obligations. We are calling on the EU, which has the capacity to recycle ships safely and cleanly, to respect its laws and create good shipyard jobs at home."

The Iron Steel Scrap & Shipbreakers' Association of India (ISSAI) was also severely critical of the proposal, saying that it went against the Basel convention and that 'India should strongly oppose the proposed EU Regulations on export of ships for recycling. Our permanent stand is that all hazardous waste which are not required for the final voyage should be removed before sending ships for recycling as we cannot accept dumping of hazardous waste in the country. Instead of making amendment to allow ships to be exported for recycling by removing hazardous materials not required for final voyage, EU is only making a show by introducing this article but the same loophole persists." 

The ban on the export of end-of-life ships containing hazardous wastes has been part of the 2006 Waste Shipment Regulations in Europe. Any hazardous ship is not supposed to leave a EU port for shipbreaking in non-OECD countries. The famous case of the French aircraft carrier “Le Clémenceau” comes to mind; she was returned to France after she was slated to be beached in India with hazardous wastes aboard. 

Figures indicate that more than 200 European ships- most flagged outside the EU- were sent to South Asia for demolition last year. Many contain hazardous materials such as asbestos, mineral oil, PCBs, mercury, etc. With demolition activity spiking substantially this year, too little is known about the amounts of wastes piling up on the shores and ‘sickening’ the workers and nearby communities, a prominent environmental group says. A 2006 Indian Supreme Court backed study said that 16% of shipbreaking workers showed symptoms of asbestosis. 

Political will to solve the problem is “manifestly absent”, said the European Economic and Social Committee earlier this year, adding that the EC proposal was “weak and full of legal loopholes.” Critics allege that the EU Ministers are copping out when they claim that the current ban is too easily circumvented by shipowners- the problem is more a failure of enforcement of regulations, they point out.

 “Currently, the combined capacity of ship recycling facilities located in OECD countries would be enough to properly recycle most of EU-flagged and EU-owned ships,” said Patrizia Heidegger, Director of ‘Shipbreaking Platform’. “Instead of scrapping the EU ban on hazardous wastes exports to developing countries, the EU should promote green ship recycling at home.”
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Another suspicious death on the ‘Sage Sagittarius’.

The saga of the coal carrier ‘Sage Sagittarius’ got stranger last week, with an Australian investigator discovering, three weeks after the event, that another person had died on board the vessel on October 6 in suspicious circumstances while the ship was working cargo in Japan. This is the third fatality aboard the vessel in the last six weeks; the ship, operated by Nippon Yusen Kaisha, has an all Filipino crew aboard. The latest death is that of a Japanese Superintendent, who was reportedly crushed in a conveyor belt incident. His body took two hours to be extracted.

 The Australian Federal Police are already investigating the death of the Chief Cook, who is said to have fallen overboard about 450 miles from Cairns in the Timor Sea in late August. Then, police were called in two weeks later at Newcastle to investigate the death of the Chief Engineer Hector Collado. Initial reports suggested that Collado had suffered cardiac arrest just before docking. However, authorities said later that he might have sustained “crush injuries”. Other reports said that the Chief Engineer had fallen down the companionway in the engine room.

Six weeks ago, the death of the cook Cesar Llanto resulted in the vessel being diverted to Port Kembla for investigations. The incident had the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) expressing concern. Dean Summers from ITF Australia said at the time that the crewmember was planning to approach the ITF to make a complaint about work conditions. “This is a very serious situation. Our counsellors are waiting to speak to the crew members. It must be a very traumatic time,” Summers said.

The Superintendent that died this month was Kosaku Monji, an employee of Hachiuma Steamship, managers for the Sage Sagittarius. Monji is reported to have boarded the vessel at Newcastle before it sailed to Japan to ‘oversee crew safety.’ Dean Summers says the latest death is highly suspicious as there was no mention of it for weeks, and it was only discovered after an Australian inspector found an entry made in the ship’s log.

"A superintendent was put on there apparently to care for the welfare and safety of the crew. This is the superintendent that met his death just recently on October 6," Summers said. "Today is October 29; if it was a workplace accident, I would have thought any capable authority would have been able to determine that's the case.

"We think there has to be a higher level coordination… we'll be asking the Government to set up a taskforce to cut across the jurisdictions of the Australian Federal Police, the NSW Police and the Japanese police to make sure there is a transparent process to investigate the death of three seafarers," he said. 

Implying that the crew were being intimidated to keep quiet about the incidents, Summers added that the crew were “all too scared to talk.”

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