ALERT - Faulty PFD valve alleged in high court case

oceanfroggie

oceanfroggie

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Forgive cross post but this is important safety info

Irish Independant - "Wife 'destroyed' after seeing husband drown", news paper reports high court case of drowning tragedy allegedly caused by faulty "Halkey Roberts" valve used in a Baltic PFD.

Irish Times - "Court hears man drowned due to defective lifejacket"

[ QUOTE ]
EXTRACT - The High Court yesterday heard evidence from consulting engineer Joseph O'Sullivan that in his opinion the valve was dangerous and did not comply with EU safety standards. He revealed that in 20 safety tests conducted on the lifejacket in Ireland and the UK, the air valve malfunctioned 13 times. "It is unsafe and dangerous," he said. The court heard that the same jacket and valve is still available on the market.

[/ QUOTE ]Link to maintenance and safety advice on Baltic web site: Baltic Inflateable Life Jackets

Irish Independant
Irish Times

Suggest folk urgently check if they have this valve in their PFDs, and if so get it checked by a suitable agent. A sad case indeed. Will get ours checked on Saturday.
 
By air valve I assume they mean the valve in the mouth inflator/ top-up tube.

By "failed" do they mean did not hold air, for which the test is a simple d-i-y one of inflate & leave for 24hrs? Or was it the more complex "excess air release" function that prevents CO2 release from bursting an over inflated jacket? This latter test is probably impossible to do oneself.

Similar valves are used in almost every modern inflatable collar style life-jacket. I wopuld not be surprised if they all had the same manufacturer or at least identical designs. I have a second-hand life-jacket on test at present that is of a different make, but uses identical mechanisms for triggering the CO2 bottle.
 
The vale in question - Halkey Roberts" valve is the inflation valve attached to the gas bottle it can be either manual or auto
 
halkeyrobertsautomaticinflator.jpg
"halkey roberts lifejacket co2 rearming kit
>> Halkey Roberts Automatic Inflator
Halkey-Roberts, is a US manufacturer formed in 1941. It is now part of the Atrion Corp a specialist medical part supplier. Its patented lifejacket inflator is fired by a 'bobbin'. The bobbin chemically reacts with water by dissolving and allowing the mechanism to fire the Co2."

This valve I presume. The older Crewsaver have these ones as well.
 
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