An inspector follows a predictable order and reaches for the same items every time. That makes the week before a port call a rehearsable exercise rather than a matter of luck, provided someone walks the ship the way the inspector will.
What Gets Looked At, In Order
Inspections are not random walks. A port State control officer works through a sequence, and each stage informs how hard they look at the next. An initial inspection that goes smoothly may end early. One that produces findings in the first ten minutes becomes a detailed inspection, and the ship has lost control of the day.
Certificates first. The officer starts at the ship’s papers, which is deficiency code group 01. Validity, endorsements, and whether any survey falls due during the call. This stage is quick and entirely preventable, and a problem here sets the tone for everything after it.
Then the life-saving appliances walk. LSA findings sit in the 12xxx code range and are among the most visible on any inspection, because the equipment is physically there to be handled. Lifeboat davits, falls, engine start and release gear. Liferaft servicing dates and hydrostatic releases. Immersion suits, lifejackets and lifebuoys with their lights and attachments. The 2022 amendments to the LSA Code covering lifeboat on-load release gear have produced a noticeable rise in findings in this range, so release mechanisms attract particular attention.
Then the radio and EPIRB check. Radio deficiencies fall in the 04xxx range and the equipment is functionally tested rather than inspected on paper. EPIRB findings cluster around four things: battery expiry date, hydrostatic release, registration, and correct assignment to the GMDSS sea area the ship operates in. Registration is the one operators forget, because it lives with a shore authority rather than aboard.
Then firefighting. Detection panel with all zones active and no faults, extinguishers within service dates and accessible, fire doors self-closing and latching, dampers operating freely, hoses and hydrants pressurised, pumps starting, and fixed systems with current service dates.
Then the records. Drills, maintenance, ballast, oil, rest hours. By this point the officer has formed a view of the ship, and the records either confirm it or contradict it.
The order matters. An officer who finds three problems among the certificates does not stop at three. They start looking for the fourth.
The Items That Recur
Across the region the same findings appear year after year, and four categories account for the bulk of detentions: ISM non-conformities, fire safety failures, certificate and documentation problems, and life-saving appliance defects.
Lifeboat engine will not start on test. Tested by asking for a start, not by reading a record. Batteries and fuel are the usual causes.
On-load release gear seized. The mechanism that has generated a surge of findings since the 2022 LSA Code amendments.
Davit falls corroded or overdue. Falls past their renewal or end-for-end interval, or showing deterioration.
Liferafts past service date. Servicing overdue, or a hydrostatic release unit expired.
EPIRB battery expired or registration missing. Both are date checks an officer performs in seconds.
Fire doors that will not latch, dampers that will not move. Painted, corroded or obstructed, and checked by hand.
Crew unable to demonstrate. Equipment that works, operated by nobody who can show it working.
These appear in our pieces on lifejacket compliance, launching appliances, fire dampers and extinguisher servicing, each of which covers the underlying requirement. The point here is narrower: these are the specific items to physically walk and touch in the week before arrival, not read about.
The Folder at the Gangway
Documentation that has to be searched for is documentation that looks doubtful. A prepared ship has one folder ready before the officer boards, holding the statutory certificates and their endorsements, the ISM Document of Compliance and Safety Management Certificate, the Maritime Labour Certificate and Declaration of Maritime Labour Compliance in both parts, the crew list with certificates of competency and endorsements, the last inspection report with every finding closed and evidenced, drill records for the past twelve months, the fire control plan and training manual, the maintenance plan for fire protection systems and life-saving appliances, servicing certificates from authorised providers, and the ballast water and oil record books.
The MLC documents deserve their own note. Following the 2024 regional campaign on crew wages and seafarer employment agreements, officers are reading employment agreements more closely than they used to, so the agreements themselves and the wage accounts should be in the folder rather than produced on request.
Why One Fault Becomes Four
Here is the mechanism that turns a manageable inspection into a detention, and it is the most useful thing to understand about the whole process.
A fire door that will not latch is a fire safety deficiency. That much is straightforward. But the officer then asks three further questions. Did the planned maintenance system identify it? Can the crew explain the inspection procedure for it? Was any corrective action logged? Where the answer to all three is no, the finding escalates from an equipment defect to a failure of the safety management system, and ISM failures are detainable.
The door is a deficiency. The door, plus a maintenance system that missed it, plus a crew who cannot explain it, plus no record of anyone noticing, is a detention.
This is why volume matters independently of severity. Analysis of more than 125,000 regional inspection records shows that five or more deficiencies in a single inspection sharply raises detention probability, even where no individual item would justify it. Four small findings is not a comfortable position. It is one item away from a different outcome, and the fifth is usually the one that reveals the system behind the first four.
After a Deficiency Is Written
Findings are recorded with a code, a description and an action. Some are observations. Some must be rectified before the next port. Some require rectification before the ship sails. The master signs the report, and the results go into the shared regional database where every other member authority can see them.
Where a detention is imposed, the practical sequence is fixed. The vessel cannot sail until the detainable deficiencies are rectified and an officer returns to verify the corrections in person. The detention is reported to both the flag Administration and the classification society, and there are defined procedures for appeal and for detention review if the operator believes the decision was wrong.
That last item is the difference between operators whose records improve and operators who keep meeting the same finding in different ports. A deficiency is information about a system. Repairing the door and filing the report addresses the ship. Asking why the maintenance plan did not catch it addresses the reason it will otherwise happen again, on the next vessel, in front of a different officer who can see the previous finding in the database.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a PSC officer check first?
Certificates and documentation, then a physical walk of the life-saving appliances, then radio and EPIRB equipment which is functionally tested, then firefighting arrangements, then the records. The sequence matters because early findings turn an initial inspection into a detailed one, so problems among the certificates lead to a much closer look at everything after them.
What are the most common detainable findings?
Four categories dominate regionally: ISM non-conformities, fire safety failures, certificate and documentation problems, and life-saving appliance defects. Specific recurring items include a lifeboat engine that will not start on test, seized on-load release gear, corroded or overdue davit falls, liferafts past service date, expired EPIRB batteries or missing registration, fire doors that will not latch, and crew unable to demonstrate equipment.
Why do small deficiencies escalate into detentions?
Because an officer looks past the defect to the system behind it. A fire door that will not latch is a fire safety deficiency, but if the planned maintenance system did not identify it, the crew cannot explain the inspection procedure, and no corrective action was logged, it becomes an ISM failure, which is detainable. Volume compounds this: five or more deficiencies in one inspection sharply raises detention probability regardless of individual severity.
What happens after a ship is detained?
The vessel cannot sail until the detainable deficiencies are rectified and an officer returns to verify the corrections in person. The detention is reported to the flag Administration and the classification society, and recorded in the regional database visible to all member authorities. Defined procedures exist for appeal and detention review where the operator considers the decision incorrect.
Sources: Tokyo MOU, List of Deficiency Codes (as of 16 July 2025), including group 01 certificates and documentation, 04xxx radiocommunications, 12xxx life-saving appliances and 13xxx safety of navigation · Tokyo MOU, Annual Report on Port State Control in the Asia-Pacific Region 2024, including detention totals and deficiency categories · Tokyo MOU, Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control in the Asia-Pacific Region, PSC Manual and detention, appeal and review procedures · IMO Resolution A.1155(32), Procedures for Port State Control · IMO SOLAS Chapter III and the LSA Code, including the 2022 amendments concerning lifeboat on-load release gear · IMO SOLAS Chapter IV, Radiocommunications, EPIRB carriage, registration and maintenance requirements
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