A lifejacket that floats is not a compliant lifejacket. Inspectors write findings against lights, whistles, sizing, servicing records, and whether the crew can actually put one on in time. The buoyancy is almost never the problem.
The Simplest Item, and the Most Cited
Of all the life-saving appliances aboard, the lifejacket looks the least complicated. It has no moving parts, no service pressure, no release mechanism. Which is exactly why it generates so many inspection findings: the simplicity invites the assumption that if the jackets are present and intact, that part of the inspection is settled. It is not. The performance standard attaches a set of conditions to every lifejacket, and most of them have nothing to do with buoyancy.
The requirements sit in the International Life-Saving Appliance Code, with the carriage obligations in SOLAS Chapter III. Together they describe not just a flotation device but a piece of equipment that must be findable, donnable, visible, audible, correctly sized, and demonstrably maintained. An inspector works through that list, and a jacket can fail on any item while floating perfectly well.
Nobody writes a finding because a lifejacket does not float. They write it because the light is dead, the whistle is missing, or nobody can produce the servicing record.
What the Standard Actually Demands
Three performance requirements in the LSA Code are worth knowing by number, because they shape what an inspector asks the crew to demonstrate rather than merely show.
A lifejacket must be capable of being donned within one minute without assistance, after a demonstration. That is a test of the equipment and of familiarity together, and it is why inspectors ask a crew member to put one on rather than accepting that the jackets exist. It must allow the wearer to jump from a height of at least 4.5 metres into the water without injury and without the lifejacket being dislodged or damaged, which is what makes correct donning and secured fastenings a safety matter and not a tidiness one. And the lifejacket light must have a luminous intensity of not less than 0.75 candela and operate for at least eight hours, which is the requirement that quietly expires in a locker while everything else stays serviceable.
The Findings That Actually Get Written
Across inspections the pattern is consistent. The jackets are present, adequate in number, and sound. The deficiencies attach to everything around them.
Dead or missing lights: Batteries past their expiry, lights that do not activate on test, or lights absent altogether. The most frequent single finding, because the battery expires on its own clock while the jacket looks fine.
Missing whistles: Whistles detached, lost, or never fitted, and the attachment lanyard perished. Easy to check, easy to miss.
Degraded retro-reflective material: Tape that has peeled, faded, or been painted over, defeating the purpose of making a person in the water visible to a searchlight.
Sizing and quantity gaps: Insufficient child lifejackets where passengers are carried, or no provision for persons whom the standard adult jacket will not properly fit.
Stowage and marking: Jackets stowed where they cannot be reached quickly, lockers unmarked, or the vessel’s name and stowage location illegible.
Servicing records for inflatables: Inflatable lifejackets without evidence of annual servicing at an approved station, which is a documentation failure rather than an equipment one.
Notice how many of these are calendar problems rather than condition problems. The light battery, the inflatable servicing interval, and the cylinder condition all run on schedules independent of anything the crew sees during a walk-round. A jacket can be visually perfect and non-compliant on all three.
The Inflatable Complication
Inflatable lifejackets deserve separate attention because they carry a maintenance obligation that inherently buoyant jackets do not. Under SOLAS Chapter III, inflatable lifejackets must be serviced at intervals not exceeding twelve months at an approved servicing station, with an extension to seventeen months permitted only where the Administration considers twelve months impracticable.
That mirrors the liferaft regime, and it catches operators the same way. The servicing must be at an approved station, so work by the crew or an unapproved contractor does not satisfy the requirement however carefully done. The interval extension is a flag State decision rather than an operator’s choice. And the servicing record has to be aboard and produceable, because an inspector assessing an inflatable jacket is assessing the paperwork as much as the fabric.
An inflatable lifejacket is a serviced item with a certificate, not a jacket you hang in a locker. Treating it like the latter is how a compliant fleet acquires a deficiency.
Sizing Is a Compliance Question
One area operators consistently underestimate is fit. The standard is explicit that lifejackets must suit the people who will actually wear them, and two situations recur. Where passengers are carried, child lifejackets are required in a number equal to at least ten percent of the passengers on board, or a greater number if needed so that a lifejacket is available for every child. And where a standard adult lifejacket will not properly fit a person of larger size, the arrangement has to accommodate them, whether through a suitable jacket or approved extension accessories.
A jacket that does not fit does not perform. It rides up, it fails to turn an unconscious wearer face-up reliably, and it can be dislodged on entering the water, which is precisely the failure the 4.5 metre requirement exists to prevent. Inspectors treat sizing gaps as substantive rather than administrative, and rightly so.
Preparing for the Check
Getting this right requires no expertise, only a system that tracks the things that expire quietly and a crew that has actually practised.
That last point closes the loop. The one-minute donning requirement means the inspection is partly a test of the crew rather than the equipment, and drills are where that competence is built. A ship with perfect jackets and a crew who fumble the straps has not demonstrated compliance, and an inspector who sees that hesitation will look harder at everything else.
Handled as a tracked system rather than a locker of obviously floating objects, lifejacket compliance is among the easiest items on the ship to keep clean. Handled by assumption, it remains what the deficiency statistics show it to be: a simple piece of equipment that generates findings year after year, almost never because it failed to float.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common lifejacket deficiency?
Problems with the lifejacket light, typically an expired battery or a light that fails on test. The LSA Code requires a lifejacket light with a luminous intensity of not less than 0.75 candela operating for at least eight hours, and the battery expires on its own schedule while the jacket itself remains visually sound. Missing whistles and degraded retro-reflective material follow closely behind.
How often must inflatable lifejackets be serviced?
At intervals not exceeding twelve months, at an approved servicing station, under SOLAS Chapter III. The interval may be extended to a maximum of seventeen months where the Administration considers twelve months impracticable, which is a flag State decision rather than an operator’s choice. Servicing by the crew or an unapproved contractor does not satisfy the requirement, and the record must be available on board.
Why do inspectors ask crew to put a lifejacket on?
Because the LSA Code requires that a lifejacket can be donned correctly within one minute without assistance, after a demonstration. That is a combined test of the equipment and the crew’s familiarity with it, so inspectors verify it by observation rather than by inspecting the jacket alone. Regular drills are what make this straightforward.
What are the requirements for child lifejackets?
Where passengers are carried, SOLAS Chapter III requires child lifejackets equal in number to at least ten percent of the passengers on board, or a greater number if required so that a lifejacket is available for every child. Provision must also be made where a standard adult lifejacket will not properly fit a person of larger size, since a jacket that does not fit will not perform as designed.
Sources: IMO International Life-Saving Appliance (LSA) Code, Section 2.2, Lifejackets (donning within one minute, 4.5 m jump requirement, lifejacket lights at 0.75 cd for 8 hours) · IMO SOLAS Chapter III, Regulation 7, Personal life-saving appliances (lifejacket carriage and child lifejacket provision) · IMO SOLAS Chapter III, Regulation 20, Operational readiness, maintenance and inspections (annual servicing of inflatable lifejackets at approved stations) · IMO SOLAS Chapter III, Regulation 19, Emergency training and drills
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