International Maritime Pilots' Association
IMPA · Founded 1970 · London, United Kingdom · United Kingdom
- Membership scope
- Global federation of national pilots' associations across ~50 countries; represents ~8,000 individual maritime pilots.
- Framework
- N/A — IMPA is a professional federation, not a bargaining body.
- Website
- www.impahq.org
Role
The International Maritime Pilots' Association was founded 1970 in London and today is the global federation representing national maritime pilot bodies across ~50 countries. IMPA's central mission is the safety-of-pilot-transfer campaign — the SOLAS Regulation V/23 pilot-ladder + combination-ladder arrangements that have been the subject of continued failure and near-miss reports for decades. The association publishes the annual IMPA Safety Campaign report cataloguing pilot-transfer non-compliances, works with IMO NAV Sub-Committee on the ongoing SOLAS revision, and represents pilots at MSC and STCW discussions on pilotage-related competency. IMPA also produces the standard IMPA-approved pilot-ladder-inspection checklist that many national pilotage authorities use as their inspection baseline. For seafarers, the practical touch-point is that every IMPA-affiliated national pilots' association follows the SOLAS V/23 boarding standard — the same ladder arrangement, the same transfer-height rules, the same combination-ladder pilot-arm layout — regardless of which country's pilot is boarding.
Contact
https://www.impahq.org — London HQ; national bodies contact via IMPA members list.