Analysis of Systemic Safety Issues in Domestic RoRo Ferry Port Operation Using the Concept of Safety-II

Capsize of the Indonesian registered domestic RoRo ferry Yunicee in 2021 has brought public attention. The case was considered a repetition of the previous accident and presents drawbacks of ferry transport service. In the aspect of overall transport safety, a port is considered as part of safety defense at an early stage. Failure in risk mitigation could bring the ferry operation to a higher risk of an accident. Investigation into the case found a cluster of issues in some port functions was continuously neglected following several non-technical reasons since no sufficient approach has been made to present it. This paper adopts the concept of Safety-II to draw a detailed view of the coupling of port operation’s functions and viewing its performance to support safe ferry operation. Categorization of functions developed from the organizational breakdown from the perspective of governance as described in the current port operation regulation as well as typical port operation. Relevant investigation reports are used to present potential functions which could be considered the risk agents. Hence, the function interconnectivity model would provide the complexity of port operation but presents a clear view of which function should be highlighted for improvement in supporting vessels' safe operation.