Maritime emergencies often occur rapidly in unpredictable circumstances. In a scenario where vessel or offshore platform evacuation is necessary, personal floatation and thermal protection greatly increases survival chances for individuals immersed in water. Marine abandonment immersion suits, intended to be quickly donned in the case of an emergency, can provide effective protection against these dangers and prolong life. The ability to locate and correctly don an immersion suit before vessel or offshore platform abandonment is critical. Canadian standards dictate that an immersion suit must be unpacked and donned without assistance within 2-minutes. This research investigates whether individuals with common knowledge and training levels could complete donning tasks under simulated adverse maritime conditions, involving varying combinations of motion and lighting. Three of the seven conditions found total mean donning times above the 2-minute donning standard, while all conditions had one or more participants fail to meet the time requirement.

Immersion suit; survival; abandonment; emergency; donning; marine simulation