Posted by Tupsumato I'm surprised to see the self-inflating life rafts still in place. Shouldn't they automatically release upon immersion?
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There's usually an arming pin or other safety mechanism that has to be pulled. It's disarmed to keep the raft from accidentally deploying during installation, shipping, etc. Whether they're kept armed or disarmed on the ship depends on the country's safety regulations, company policy, crew training, etc. I noticed in the South Korea ferry sinking that most of the automatic life rafts also failed to deploy. Some of them have a two-stage mechanism, one part releases the raft canister from its mount, and the other activates the compressed gas to inflate. Sometimes the arming mechanisms are different, or can be configured to only inflate a certain way (often via a tug on a line vs water immersion, to keep the raft from inflating on deck in heavy waves).
The local equivalent of the Coast Guard theoretically inspects safety devices to ensure they're installed properly, up to date, etc, but often the vessel crews don't know how the equipment works and the official inspections are cursory or skipped. Some articles on the Korean sinking mention that they got around to inspecting other ferries afterwards and found there were many faulty life rafts.
http://www.ibtimes...rly-sewols-1576199