Emergency command

emblem

The emergency command in the building of the Waterways and Shipping Office Cuxhaven

The oil control ship Knechtsand in Cuxhaven

The Neuwerk in Cuxhaven

The Havariekommando is a joint institution of the federal government and the five coastal states in order to guarantee coordinated and joint accident management in the event of accidents in the North and Baltic Seas . Its seat is in Cuxhaven . The federal “ German coast safety concept” implemented by the emergency command includes radar and air surveillance, pilot use and emergency tugs for ships that are unable to maneuver.

history

On October 25, 1998, fire broke out on board the Italian timber freighter Pallas off the Danish North Sea coast. The next day, the Pallas drove without a guide into the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea . The ship was moving towards the coast unobserved because a Danish rescue cruiser had left the wrecked ship after rescuing the crew. It finally ran aground off Amrum and caused an environmental catastrophe in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park with leaking oil . The then governing parties of Schleswig-Holstein, the SPD and the Greens , denied that the state government ( Simonis II's cabinet ) was responsible for the damage and oil leak. The CDU and the FDP mainly accused Environment Minister Rainder Steenblock (Greens) of failure.

After this accident , the then Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Housing set up a commission headed by Senator a. D. Claus Grobecker , who evaluated the accident . According to the investigation report, various coordination and deployment locations had led to a “bottleneck effect”, so that coordinated measures were not taken. The commission made recommendations; On January 1, 2003, the emergency command began its work.

Organization / structure

The emergency command is a partner of the Maritime Security Center (MSZ), which started work on January 1, 2007.

Head of Average Command ; Since 2003 Hans-Werner Monsees: Public Relations Office, Secretariat

Department 1: Maritime Situation Center (MLZ)
Department 2: Ship and Pollution Control at Sea
Department 3: Coastal Pollution Control
Department 4: Fire fighting and care for the injured

The Maritime Situation Center (Department 1), which is manned around the clock by experienced navigators, constantly monitors the situation in German territorial waters and also evaluates information from the neighboring states in order to have information ready in the event of damage. The MLZ is part of the Joint Situation Center See . The situation center lake is the operational unit of the new planned maritime security center.

In the event of major damage or averages , a so-called average staff, a management staff, is convened to coordinate the operations of the emergency services. The emergency command has around 40 employees.

Strategic tasks

Possible partial aspects of an accident are conceptually processed and tactics and strategies are determined for the event of damage. In the event of an accident, it is usually necessary to rescue people , which is coordinated by the Bremen Sea Emergency Management (MRCC) of the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People .

Combating pollution accidents at sea and on the coast
Fire protection and care for the injured
Rescue to avert danger ( emergency tug )
Press office, structured public relations.

In order to carry out the tasks of combating pollution accidents, fire protection and salvage, the emergency command has three ships at its disposal in the Baltic Sea: Arkona , Scharhörn and Bottsand , the first two on a 24-hour standby. In the North Sea lie the ships Neuwerk , Mellum , Nordsee , Westensee , Eversand , Leyhörn , Janssand , THOR , ÖSK 1 , MPOSS , Lüttmoor , Knechtsand , Luneplate and the Nordic of the Bugsier shipping company. According to the Notliegeplatzverordnung (NotLPlVbgG), accident victims are to be assigned suitable shelter areas. The average command decides on the appropriate port of refuge in coordination with the federal and state governments.

Two Dornier 228 aircraft are available to the emergency command for air surveillance.

Depots with the necessary means for fighting oil are located in Emden , Wilhelmshaven , Bremerhaven , Cuxhaven , Hamburg , Meldorf , Husum , Flensburg , Kiel , Lübeck , Rostock and Stralsund .

Major damage situations

On October 9, 2010, the Baltic Sea ferry Lisco Gloria with around 240 passengers on board on the journey from Kiel to Klaipėda about 6 nautical miles north of Fehmarn caught fire. All passengers and crew were rescued and picked up by the ferry Germany . After the emergency call at the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center of the DGzRS in Bremen came up shortly after midnight , the accident command took over the coordination of the rescue measures.

On July 14, 2012 there was an explosion on the container ship MSC Flaminia on a voyage from Charleston to Antwerp in the Atlantic, followed by a fire. The first officer died in the accident and another crew member is missing.

Independent environmental expert group "Consequences of pollutant accidents" (UEG)

Since the Havariekommando (HK) started its work, the "Independent Environmental Expert Group Consequences of Pollutant Accidents" (UEG) has been at its side.

The UEG is a technically independent group of experts that advises the accident command. Its members are experts from federal and state environmental and transport administrations as well as from scientific institutions. The expert group has u. a. the task of dealing with environmentally relevant topics that are related to the tasks of the emergency command in order to make them useful for its decision-making. These tasks include a. the documentation and evaluation of the further development of knowledge about the environmentally relevant consequences of accidents with pollutants. For this purpose, the UEG provides the HK with scientific expertise from various disciplines. The UEG works closely with environmental authorities and research institutes both nationally and internationally.

With the approval of the Federal Cabinet, the UEG was brought into being by the Federal Environment Ministry in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Transport and other federal ministries as well as the environmental ministries of the five coastal states as a joint federal and state institution. The members of the UEG are independent of instructions in their assessment and evaluation of facts.

In 2012, the expert group was called in for the first time at the request of the emergency command also in the event of an incident (in the event of an accident on the MSC Flaminia).

The group is subject to the supervision of the federal-state "Coordination Committee for Pollutant Accident Control" (KOA-SUB). Since June 2017, Ms. Monika Luxem-Fritsch (Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety) has been chairwoman of the UEG, Mr Jürgen Knaack (Lower Saxony State Agency for Water, Coastal and Nature Conservation) is deputy chairman. The office of the UEG is located at the accident command.