Partial collapse of an inflatable migrant boat resulting in the loss of 1 life on 9 September 2025

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Accident Investigation Report 21/2026

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Summary

On 9 September 2025, an inflatable migrant boat partially collapsed during a rescue operation by a Border Force vessel in the English Channel, resulting in one fatality. As the Border Force vessel approached, a sudden shift in the occupants on board the migrant boat caused one side to collapse, resulting in significant flooding and panic. Multiple persons entered the water, and the casualty was trampled into the bottom of the boat, causing her to drown. Once the casualty had been identified, Border Force vessel’s crew were unable to recover her until specialist search and rescue assets arrived on scene.

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MAIB investigation report 21-2026: inflatable migrant boat

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MAIB investigation report 21-2026: inflatable migrant boat

ACCIDENT REPORT ACCIDENT REPORT Report on the investigation into the partial collapse of an inflatable migrant boat resulting in the loss of one life in the English Channel on 9 September 2025 VERY SERIOUS MARINE CASUALTY REPORT NO 21/2026 OCTOBER 2026 Extract from The United Kingdom Merchant Shipping (Accident Reporting and Investigation) Regulations 2026 – Regulation 5: The sole objective of a safety investigation into an accident under these Regulations is the prevention of future accidents through the ascertainment of its causes and circumstances. It is not the purpose of such an investigation to determine liability nor, except so far as is necessary to achieve its objective, to apportion blame. NOTE This report is not written with litigation in mind and, pursuant to Regulation 19(1) of The Merchant Shipping (Accident Reporting and Investigation) Regulations 2026, shall be inadmissible in any judicial proceedings concerning liability unless the Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents or a court of law determine otherwise. © Crown copyright, 2026 You may re-use this document/publication (not including departmental or agency logos) free of charge in any format or medium. You must re-use it accurately and not in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and you must give the title of the source publication. Where we have identified any third party copyright material you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. Front cover image from Home Office. All MAIB publications can be found on our website: www.gov.uk/maib For all enquiries: Marine Accident Investigation Branch First Floor, Spring Place 105 Commercial Road Southampton SO15 1GH United Kingdom Email: iso@maib.gov.uk Telephone: +44 (0)23 8039 5500 Press enquiries during office hours: +44 (0)19 3244 0015 Press enquiries out of hours: +44 (0)30 0777 7878 CONTENTS GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS SYNOPSIS 1 SECTION 1 – FACTUAL INFORMATION 2 1.1 Particulars of migrant boat 512 and accident 2 1.2 Background 3 1.3 Narrative 3 1.3.1 Departure from France 3 1.3.2 Crossing and deterioration 4 1.3.3 Rescue and collapse 5 1.3.4 Recovery of occupants and discovery of the casualty 8 1.3.5 Recovery of the casualty 8 1.4 Environmental 9 1.5 The deceased 9 1.5.1 Postmortem examination 9 1.5.2 Toxicology report 9 1.5.3 Fuel additives 10 1.6 Migrant boat 51210 1.6.1 Construction 10 1.6.2 Boat defects 10 1.6.3 Engine and fuel 10 1.6.4 Loading and freeboard 13 1.7 BF Volunteer13 1.7.1 Vessel description 13 1.7.2 Crew 14 1.7.3 Equipment 15 1.7.4 Training and familiarisation 15 1.8 English Channel small boat response system 15 1.8.1 English Channel monitoring 15 1.8.2 UK Border Force 15 1.8.3 His Majesty’s Coastguard 16 1.8.4 Royal National Lifeboat Institution 16 1.8.5 UK Border Force chartered crew transfer vessels 16 1.8.6 The system in operation 16 1.8.7 Procedures and their management 17 1.9 Regulation 18 1.10 Reference information 18 1.11 Previous accidents and incidents 18 1.11.1 Inflatable migrant boat – partial sinking with loss of at least 27 lives 18 1.11.2 Inflatable migrant boat – partial sinking with loss of at least 8 lives 19 1.11.3 UK Border Force incident reports 19 SECTION 2 – ANALYSIS 20 2.1 Aim 20 2.2 Overview 20 2.3 The accident 20 2.3.1 Cause of death and petrol exposure 20 2.3.2 Condition of migrant boat 51221 2.3.3 The criminal element 21 2.3.4 Initial approach, crowd response and collapse of migrant boat 51221 2.3.5 Submersion and inability to self-rescue 22 2.3.6 Discovery of the casualty 22 2.4 Recovery and rescue constraints on board BF Volunteer 23 2.4.1 Physical, environmental, equipment and training constraints 23 2.4.2 Evolution of the English Channel response system 23 2.4.3 UK Border Force search and rescue capability 24 2.5 Survivability and time criticality 24 2.5.1 Submersion duration 24 2.5.2 Opportunity for earlier recovery 25 SECTION 3 – CONCLUSIONS 26 3.1 Safety issues directly contributing to the accident that have been addressed or resulted in recommendations 26 3.2 Other safety issues directly contributing to the accident 26 SECTION 4 – ACTION TAKEN 28 4.1 Actions taken by other organisations 28 SECTION 5 – RECOMMENDATIONS 29 FIGURES Figure 1: Chart showing departure and rescue position of migrant boat 512 Figure 2: Manpreet Kaur’s approximate position on board the boat Figure 3: The movement of the boat’s occupants during the rescue operation and the subsequent sponson collapse Figure 4: Migrant boat 512 during the rescue operation Figure 5: Migrant boat 512 condition and partially collapsed state during rescue and post-recovery Figure 6: The boat’s construction and defects Figure 7: Engine and fuel arrangements for migrant boat 512 Figure 8: Migrant boat 512 during the initial approach, showing deflation and low freeboard Figure 9: BF Volunteer GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS CPR - cardiopulmonary resuscitation CTV - crew transfer vessel HMCG - His Majesty’s Coastguard hp - horsepower ILB - inshore lifeboat IMO - International Maritime Organization JCR - Joint Control Room MAIB - Marine Accident Investigation Branch MASO - Maritime and Aviation Support Officer MCA - Maritime and Coastguard Agency MRCC - Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre MTBE - 2-methoxy-2-methylpropane OIC - officer in charge PFD - personal flotation device PVC - polyvinyl chloride RHIB - rigid-hulled inflatable boat RNLI - Royal National Lifeboat Institution SAR - search and rescue SOP - standard operating procedure UAV - unmanned aerial vehicle UTC - universal time coordinated TIMES: all times used in this report are UTC unless otherwise stated. SYNOPSIS On 9 September 2025, an inflatable boat carrying 74 migrants across the English Channel partially collapsed during a rescue operation by the Border Force vessel BF Volunteer. One of the occupants, 36-year-old Manpreet Kaur, was found submerged in the flooded boat and subsequently died from drowning. The migrants had been provided with the boat by criminal facilitators. During the crossing from France, the overcrowded and unseaworthy boat progressively deteriorated as it lost air, accumulated water and spilt fuel, reducing both buoyancy and structural integrity. At 1057, when the boat entered UK waters, it was declared to be in distress and BF Volunteer was tasked to rescue those on board. As a line was passed during the intercept, the occupants moved rapidly to one side, causing the port sponson to collapse. This resulted in further flooding, multiple people entering the water and the development of a mass casualty situation. During the incident, Manpreet Kaur was trampled into the bottom of the boat and became submerged in a mixture of water and fuel. She was not identified immediately and remained submerged for a prolonged period before recovery. Although all visible survivors were rescued quickly, her eventual recovery by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the commencement of resuscitation occurred after a period of submersion beyond which survival was highly unlikely. The investigation found that the migrant boat was wholly unsuitable for the voyage. Its poor construction, overcrowding, low freeboard and unsafe fuel and engine arrangement made it vulnerable to flooding and collapse. The investigation also found that Border Force procedures, training and equipment did not address the recovery of an unresponsive casualty from within a partially collapsed inflatable boat, exposing a limitation in on-scene capability when rescue conditions deteriorated. Recommendations have been made to Border Security Command to improve the identification of less visible or unresponsive occupants during rescue operations, and to develop procedures, training and equipment to enable the safe

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