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5 Task area “Dealing with unplanned incidents” 
This task area is used for considering incidents which are not foreseeable during the planning and ne 
cessitate a divergence from the original voyage planning. The list of incidents considered here makes 
no claim to completeness, but it should be assumed that the incidents dealt with here cover the over 
whelming majority of the cases occurring in practical operation. 
Within the framework of this analysis, the following unplanned incidents are considered: 
• Collision avoidance: reaction to the particular traffic situation on the basis of the result 
of the task: “Object recording” (Section 4.3). 
• Grounding avoidance: execution of a change in planning on the basis of the water 
depth actually present. This task is based on the data recorded in the course of the 
task “Observing the environment” (Section 4.2). 
• Evasion of bad weather regions: change in planning with the aim of evading bad 
weather regions. This task likewise uses the data recorded in the course of observing 
the environment. 
• Execution of man-overboard manoeuvres. 
One factor common to the tasks itemised here is that they represent a combination of planning activities 
(i.e. recording and evaluating data) and “active” activities (i.e. execution of the particular manoeuvre to 
deal with the situation). For this reason, each of these tasks comprises two general functionalities: 
• Planning of the respective manoeuvre 
• Execution of the manoeuvre; this includes return to the track originally planned. 
5.1 Collision avoidance 
5.1.1 Purpose of task 
The process of collision avoidance consists of the planning and following of an evasion track with the 
aim of avoiding collisions with other vessels. Thus collision avoidance - as already mentioned in the 
introduction - consists of a planning component and an executing/monitoring component. 
During the planning, the necessary data for determining the evasion manoeuvre and track are compiled. 
A distinction should be made here between the terms “evasion track" and “evasion manoeuvre”. The 
evasion manoeuvre designates the actions which are initiated to avoid the risk of collision. This ma 
noeuvre is undertaken on the basis of the encounter situation and must follow the international rules for 
the avoidance of collisions, as well as those of “good seamanship”. The selected manoeuvre forms the 
planning basis for the evasion track. In the case of evasion by changing course, a sequence of way 
points is involved, which leads from leaving the set track via passing the foreign vessel through to re 
newed joining of the set track. 
The execution and monitoring of the evasion track contains similar components such as the tasks “De 
termining set/actual deviations” (Section 3.1) and “Determining set value” (Section 3.2). Essentially, the