The Association would like to remind Members of the need to take great care when planning, training for and conducting lifeboat drills. As was seen again in recent times, in a high profile incident, the danger involved continues to be very real. As Members will be aware, the risks and dangers associated with launching, running and recovering modern ship's lifeboats are well documented. Notable incidents of lifeboats accidents have been reported over the last few years, including incidents recorded by: seven reported by MAIB (UK) two by TSB(Canada) in 2002 and 2006 respectively one by the BSU(Germany) in 2006 three by the ATSB(Australia) in 2002,2003 and 2004 respectively two by the Hong Kong Marine Department in 2003 and 2006 respectively two by Gard P&I in 2007 one by MCS India in 2008 The latest tragic accident was on 10 February 2013, on board the cruise vessel Thomson Majesty. The Association has also had to deal with a number of accidents over the years involving lifeboat drills. As far as the Association is aware, the above mentioned accidents occurred during routine lifeboat drills, testing and maintenance activities with experienced and qualified seafarers performing and supervising the operations. Statistics and investigations have shown that the main cause of accidents with lifeboats is equipment failure, within which on-load release gear failure is identified as most frequent cause of fatal accidents. The common feature of these occurrences was involuntary release of one or more hooks. Where one hook is released, the shock effect often causes the other end to tear off and the lifeboat falls into the water. This, combined with possible human error, may account for the unfortunate frequency of these incidents. In view of the increasing number of accidents caused by lifeboats hooks failure, we recommend to Members to provide vessels with working model of the release hook mechanism used on board, which should be easily available for crew for educatio