Appendix 5 - Goals, Functional Requirements and Expected Performance Criteria for SOLAS Chapter III

EP 1: All life-saving appliances should be easily accessible (e.g. not obstructed and not locked).

EP 2: All life-saving appliances should be stowed securely in a sheltered position and protected from damage by fire and explosion.

EP 3: All life-saving appliances should be maintainable to ensure reliability for the specified service cycle.

EP 4: All life-saving appliances should be designed considering uncertainty in material properties, loads, deterioration and consequences of failure in operating environment.

EP 5: Descriptions and instructions for operation, inspection, maintenance and functional testing should be provided for all life-saving appliances.

EP 6: All life-saving appliances should be able to withstand environmental exposure of the ship including sunlight, ozone, seawater (wash, heavy seas), icing, wind, humidity, oil, air temperature (-30°C to +65°C), water temperature (at least -1°C to +30°C if it is likely to be immersed in seawater), fungus and marine atmosphere.

EP 7: All life-saving appliances should be usable and operational under adverse vessel conditions, i.e. list and trim.

EP 8: Deployment of life-saving appliances should be possible without depending upon any means other than gravity or stored power which is independent of the ship's power supplies to launch the survival craft.

EP 9: The number of crew members on board should be sufficient for operating the life-saving appliance and launching arrangements required for abandonment by the total number of persons on board. This should include substitutes for key persons and crew members on board operating survival craft and launching arrangements are assigned and trained appropriately.

EP 1: All life-saving appliances and arrangements should be designed and installed to facilitate training and drills.

EP 2: Training and drills should be routinely conducted to ensure crew are in a state of readiness and are competent with the operation of life-saving appliances and their assigned emergency duties.

EP 3: Every crew member should participate in drills. These should be conducted, as far as practicable, as if there were an actual emergency.

EP 4: Drills should be planned and conducted in a safe manner.

EP 5: Drills should be planned in such a way that due consideration is given to regular practice in the various emergencies that may occur depending on the type of ship and cargo.

EP 1: Safety information and instructions should be presented in a manner that is easily understood by passengers, in language, illustration and/or demonstration.

EP 2: Information should be distributed and displayed in appropriate conspicuous places accessible under all conditions, e.g. emergency lighting.

EP 3: All ships should clearly indicate and highlight the stowage location of all life-saving appliances, display directions to places designated for assembling all persons in the event of an emergency, display assignment to life-saving appliances and display how to operate life-saving appliances.

EP 4: The number and type of life-saving appliances should be marked at each stowage location.

EP 1: The emergency management system should clearly identify roles and responsibilities during an emergency.

EP 2: Assembly locations, muster stations and escape routes should be identified on all ships.

EP 3: All passenger ships should establish a decision support system.

EP 4: The emergency management system should include the consideration of physical characteristics and capabilities of embarked persons.

EP 5: All ships should have the means to account for all persons on board.

EP 6: The emergency management system should have a uniform structure, be easy to use and be provided on board in an appropriate conspicuous location.

EP 1: All ships should have the means to indicate their position visually in an emergency, which makes it possible to detect and locate the ship from an altitude of at least 3,000 m at a range of at least 10 miles under clear daytime and night-time conditions for a period of at least 40 s.

EP 2: All ships should be provided with means for two-way on-scene communication between survival craft, between survival craft and ship, and between survival craft and rescue craft.

EP 3: All ships should carry search and rescue locating devices that are designed to automatically activate and operate continuously and can be rapidly placed into any survival craft from their place of storage on the ship.

EP 1: Emergency alerts, messages and instructions to all crew and passengers should be received regardless of an individual's location on the ship.

EP 2: Emergency alerts, messages and instructions should be communicated in appropriate languages expected to be understood by all those on board.

EP 3: Two-way communications should be possible between emergency control stations, places designated for assembling and/or embarkation to survival craft and strategic positions on board.

EP 1: Means should be available to embark survival craft from both the embarkation deck and the waterline in the lightest seagoing condition and under adverse conditions of list and trim.

EP 2: Means of evacuation should be distributed on the ship considering access of persons and areas where persons may become isolated.

EP 3: Each davit-launched, self-propelled survival craft boarded from the embarkation deck should be capable of being launched from two positions by one crew member: from a position in the survival craft and from a position on deck.

EP 4: All survival and rescue craft should be stowed as near the water surface as is safe and practicable.

EP 5: All ships should provide for safe unobstructed launching of each survival craft, for example, by avoiding interference with fixed structures, fixtures, fittings, equipment and other life-saving appliances.

EP 6: Embarkation platforms should provide for protection from the seaway and the effects of hazardous cargo, if carried.

EP 7: Relative movement and gaps between the survival craft and ship during embarkation should be minimized.

EP 8: All life-saving appliances should enable safe abandonment of all persons on board regardless of their physical condition, age and mobility, including those needing evacuation by stretcher or other means.

EP 9: All ships should provide for safe launching of survival craft both in a seaway and when the ship is adrift.

EP 10: Passenger ships should provide float free survival craft capacity for at least 25% of the total number of persons on board and cargo ships should provide 100% float free survival craft capacity for the total number of persons on board.

EP 11: All ships should provide adequate space to muster and provide instructions for all persons on board.

EP 12: Abandonment of all persons on board should take no more than 30 minutes after mustering on passenger ships, and 10 minutes on cargo ships.

EP 13: Each survival craft should be prepared for boarding and launching by no more than two crew members in less than 5 minutes.

EP 14 Life-saving appliances and the craft they launch should operate as a system.

EP 1: Survival craft should provide a habitable environment for all persons on board.

EP 2: Survival craft should provide adequate ventilation and protection for its complement against wind, rain and spray at all ambient temperatures between -15 and 30 degrees C.

EP 3: Each survival craft shall have sufficient buoyancy when loaded with its full complement of persons and when punctured in any one location.

EP 4: All passenger ships must have sufficient self-propelled craft capable of marshalling all non-self-propelled survival craft sufficient for the total number of persons on board.

EP 5: Self-propelled survival and rescue craft should be capable of proceeding ahead in calm water at least at 2 knots when towing the largest passive survival craft carried on the ship loaded with its full complement of persons and equipment.

EP 6: Survival craft should be able to reach a safe distance from the ship in a timely manner, either by its own propulsion or by assistance from other survival craft or rescue craft.

EP 7: Each survival craft should have sufficient first aid supplies, anti-seasickness medication, and supply of food and water for the number of persons on board.

EP 8: Survival craft should be approved for the maximum number of persons it is permitted to accommodate, as decided by practical seating tests afloat and based upon the number of adult persons wearing individual buoyancy equipment who can be seated without, in any way, interfering with the normal operation of its equipment or means of propulsion.

EP 9: All life-saving appliances and arrangements should be designed to reflect the expected capabilities and characteristics of persons on board.

EP 10: All survival craft should provide means for persons in the water to cling to the survival craft, and permit persons to board the survival craft from the water when wearing individual buoyancy equipment.

EP 1: Each person on a cargo ship and each crew member assigned to operate the life-saving appliances on any ship should be provided with individual garments for protection against hypothermia.

EP 2: Each person on board should have ready access to a physically suitable personal life-saving appliance, regardless of their location on the vessel.

EP 3: All ships must ensure individual wearable buoyancy equipment are available for persons on watch and at remote locations on the ship so that they are readily accessible in an emergency.

EP 4: All ships shall ensure that each adult on board has a suitable individual wearable buoyancy equipment considering their weight and girth.

EP 5: Passenger ships shall ensure that each infant and child on board has a suitable individual wearable buoyancy equipment, as appropriate, for the duration of the voyage and the type of service.

EP 6: Throwable personal flotation devices are distributed so that they are readily available on both sides of the ship and as far as practicable on all open decks extending to the ship's side or to the stern.

EP 7: Throwable personal flotation devices are stowed so as to be capable of being rapidly cast loose and not permanently secured in any way.

EP 8: Personal life-saving appliances should be provided with adequate spare capacity.

EP 1: Survival craft should have active and passive means of detection which makes it possible to visually locate or detect the survival craft in a seaway from a ship or an aircraft.

EP 2: Visual means of detection for survival craft should make it possible for an aircraft at an altitude of up to 3,000 meters to detect the survival craft at a range of at least 10 miles; and for a ship to detect the survival craft in a seaway in clear conditions at a range of at least 2 miles.

EP 1: Visual means of detection for persons in the water should make it possible for a ship to detect the person in a seaway in clear daytime conditions at a range of at least 0.2 miles; and in clear night-time conditions at a range of at least 0.5 miles for a duration of at least 8 hours.

EP 2: Individual wearable buoyancy equipment should have a manually controlled active means of detection which makes it possible to detect a person in a seaway audibly at a range of at least 0.2 miles in calm weather.

EP 3: Buoyancy equipment intended to support and enable the detection of persons in the water should be provided on board. The buoyancy equipment should have passive means of detection, which makes it possible to detect the buoyancy equipment in a seaway visually and, have active means of detection attached which is automatically activated when the buoyancy equipment is deployed.

EP 1: Rescue craft should be stowed in such a way that they are kept in a state of continuous readiness and can be launched within 5 minutes and neither the rescue craft nor its stowage arrangements interfere with the operation of any survival craft at any other launching station.

EP 2: Launching arrangements for rescue craft should provide safe launching from the ship in a seaway with the ship making way at speeds of up to 5 knots.

EP 3: Rescue craft should be capable of maintaining a speed of at least 6 knots for at least 4 hours in a seaway.

EP 4: Rescue craft should be capable of being towed at speeds of up to 5 knots and be capable of towing other survival craft.

EP 5: Rescue craft should have sufficient mobility and manoeuvrability in a seaway to enable retrieval of persons from the water. Ro-ro passenger ships should be equipped with effective means for rapidly recovering survivors from the water and transferring survivors from rescue or survival craft to the ship.

EP 6: The full complement of occupants for which the rescue craft is approved to carry must be recovered to a position where they can disembark to the deck of the ship.

EP 7: Rescue craft should be capable of carrying at least five persons seated and at least one person lying down.