ATSB widens the Spirit of Tasmania steering investigation to Spirit IV

ABC News reported on 6 November 2026 that the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has expanded its investigation into steering issues on the new Spirit of Tasmania ferries after the primary system failed on Spirit IV on Thursday. The bureau was already investigating an incident involving Spirit V on a trial voyage on 24 October. Spirit IV resumed service overnight.

At a Public Accounts Committee hearing, TT-Line chief executive Chris Carbone said the new ships have two separate steering systems. “Those systems are independent of each other and, in fact, they’re made by different manufacturers and that’s part of the whole safety systems on board the ship,” he said. “So [in] yesterday’s incident, the primary system failed.” “We moved to the backup system and because we had no further backup, that’s why the tug was called.” He said it was not yet known if the steering issues on both vessels involved the same root cause, and that TT-Line had appointed an independent investigator to assess both incidents. “I want to assure everyone that these new ships are safe and they also have full redundancy across all the operating systems on the ship,” he said.

Chairman Ken Kanofski apologised to passengers for the four-hour delay and said safety took precedence over scheduling. “Yesterday we had an operational issue,” he told the committee. “All of the backup systems and procedures kicked into place.” “All of the protocols were followed.” “The captain was always in control of the ship and at all times passengers and crew were safe.”

The ATSB said Thursday’s incident would now be included in a wider probe of the 24 October incident. “The expanded investigation will involve the download of both ships’ vessel data recorders for the relevant voyages, examining the ships’ equipment, interviewing involved crew and other relevant personnel, and analysing records and documentation,” the bureau said. “This broadened investigation is in line with the ATSB’s highest investigation priority in the marine transport mode being occurrences involving Australian-flagged passenger vessels.”

In a summary posted on its website on Friday, the ATSB said that on the 5 November voyage, when steering control was changed from the autopilot to manual mode (follow-up), the steering wheel did not respond to helm commands. “Control was then changed to emergency non-follow-up to embark the pilot while the ship’s engineers attempted to correct the fault.” “Once the pilot was on board, the ship aborted entry to Port Phillip Bay to further investigate the issue.” “Further attempts to transfer steering to manual mode were unsuccessful.” “Subsequently, steering control was transferred to the bridge wing and central steering levers from where the ship was then steered.”