02/19/2020
Plastic cover on smoke detector. During an inspection of vessel accommodation by shore management, it was observed that a plastic cover was obstructing a smoke detector.

02/19/2020
UK HSE: fatal injury following catastrophic failure of pressure test equipment. A 64-year-old worker was fatally wounded by shrapnel ejected from testing equipment. He was leak testing eight 1500 litre cylinders, by applying compressed air inside to create pressure.

02/19/2020
Two electrical incidents – UK HSE. Here are two recent prosecutions brought by the UK Health and Safety Executive, both relating to inappropriate working arrangements with live power.

02/19/2020
Short circuit on 440v AC bus bars – arc flash. A crewman was doing electrical work on a 440v power distribution panel (PDP), when a loose earth bonding cable made contact with a live 440v bus bar causing a short circuit and an arc flash.

02/19/2020
Electric shock resulting in burn. An ROV technician received an electric shock to his left arm beneath the elbow, resulting in a burn.

02/13/2020
Basket snagged on ship’s structure. The Marine Safety Forum (MSF) has published Safety Alert 19-14 relating to an incident whereby a basket snagged on the ships structure causing damage to the vessel and basket.

02/13/2020
Unsafe lifting operations – potential dropped object. The Marine Safety Forum (MSF) has published Safety Alert 19-15 relating to a potential dropped object during unsafe lifting operations.

02/13/2020
Wrapped cargo slipped during loading and fell. A large load weighing over six tonnes was dropped during loading operations. The item was a hot air duct.

02/13/2020
Dropped object from crane. A composite block forming the end stop topping of a crane fell 20m from the crane to deck. The incident occurred after a Suez Canal transit, when it had been necessary to use the crane to lift a small boat into and out of the water.

02/13/2020
High potential near miss dropped object. During trans-spooling of 1½” hydraulic jumper from a wooden reel to a subsea carousel, the second end termination head of the hydraulic jumper pipe released from the reel and fell to the floor.

02/13/2020
Dropped object near miss – crane boom bumper stop falls off. This was a high potential near miss dropped object incident in which a crane boom bumper stop fell onto the crane cab. No personnel were injured; however, there was potential for serious or fatal injury.

01/2020
Coronavirus Outbreak. With the ongoing international response to the new coronavirus outbreak (often referred to as 2019-nCOV), IMCA has reached out to our HSSE Committee and collated the following material that may be of interest to our Members globally in working-up their response plans.

01/2020
Poor condition of on-board equipment. During ‘safety walk arounds’ on one of our members’ vessels, certain equipment was seen to be in poor condition.

01/2020
MAIB: fatal man overboard incident whilst boarding tug. The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has published Accident Investigation Report 15/2019 into a fatality whereby a man fell overboard whilst boarding a tug at an oil terminal at Birkenhead, England.

01/2020
Worker fell into sea from gangway and drowned. The Singapore Tripartite Alliance for Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) has published Accident Notification 1920060 relating to a fatal fall from a gangway. This incident is still under investigation.

01/2020
Explosion and fire on-board the chemical tanker Stolt Groenland. The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has published its interim report into a serious explosion and fire on-board the chemical tanker Stolt Groenland on 28 September 2019 at Ulsan in South Korea.

01/2020
Near miss during helicopter operations. During helicopter flight boarding, a member of the crew crossed a hard barrier (stairway access chain) with a restriction sign and approached the flight deck from the aft stairway while boarding activities were ongoing on the forward side.

01/2020
Water ingress during tropical storm. What happened? A vessel took on a significant amount of rainwater on the upper tween deck during an intense tropical storm. At the time of the storm, the forward crane could not be seen from the bridge.

01/2020
There’s something in my eye! What happened? A welder reported to the Chief Officer that he had got something in his eye. The welder had been welding closed ballast tank manhole covers before breaking for lunch. He was wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE).

01/2020
LTI: step into open deck hatch causes fall. What happened? During personnel transfer operations on an offshore renewables crew transfer vessel (CTV), a deckhand stepped backwards into an open hatch and fell, resulting in an injury.

01/2020
Failure of life raft securing strap. A life raft from the starboard forward life raft station made an unplanned deployment into the sea. The incident occurred in early afternoon with calm seas and clear skies. The life raft remained attached to the painter line and vessel.

01/2020
Crew member fainted after working in water ballast tank. A crew member felt faint and subsequently collapsed after working in a confined space. The incident occurred following the work of a four-person team on rust removal maintenance of the water ballast tanks.

12/2019
Improper use of heaving line. During a mooring operation, vessel crew were found to be using a 4 ton shackle attached to a heaving line (instead of proper “monkey fist”).

12/2019
Vessel hit and destroyed fender. A vessel collided with the quay, destroying the fenders. The vessel picked up the pilot and proceeded towards the harbour. The wind was SSW 4-5 with good visibility.

12/2019
Unknown floating objects in 500m safety zone. Several floating objects were identified in the 500m safety zone of an installation. Our members’ vessel was requested to remove/tow these objects out of the safety zone to protect the installation.

12/2019
Exploding television recovered from sea. One morning the crew of a workboat noticed an old television set floating in the sea near their work area. They decided to take it on-board in order to prevent it from potentially causing damage to a passing yacht or fishing boat.

12/2019
Uncontrolled movement of retractable gangway. During lifting up and securing of a vessel’s retractable gangway, the spring latch of the lifting device disconnected causing an uncontrolled release of the holding wire, and the gangway fell.

12/2019
Failed shackle on vessel life raft. There was a failure of two stainless steel “D” shackles forming part of a life raft hydrostatic release assembly on a vessel. This was discovered whilst the vessel was in the 500m safety zone of an installation.

12/2019
Diver trapped by Anchor Chain. During diving operations to locate a pipeline end manifold (PLEM) near a single point mooring (SPM), a diver was trapped by an anchor chain. The incident occurred when Diver 1, searching for the PLEM, went underneath the anchor chain without realising it.

12/2019
Important safety notice to users of certain Crosby shackle products. Crosby has prepared an Important Safety Notice for some specific Crosby 7/8” 6.5t shackles.

12/2019
Welder at work injured during close SIMOPS. A welder was hit and slightly injured by a lashing wire during lashing operations being conducted close by. Whilst all the deck crew were lashing reels, a welder was busy welding lashing eyes. The duty officer marked out the position for the lashing eyes.

12/2019
Raising awareness on safety barriers such as railings and gratings. The Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB) of Singapore has released Safety Flyer 2019/02 entitled The importance of ensuring proper inspection and maintenance regime.

12/2019
Unsafe boarding during unmooring operation. A vessel was departing from port when crew found it necessary to remove the mooring lines from the shoreside bollards with no safe un-boarding/boarding arrangements in place – instead clambering over the side.

12/2019
High potential incident – man injured while falling overboard (MOB). Whilst descending stairs to a boat-landing area on an offshore platform, a sub-contracted employee of one of our members tripped on a 2-inch discharge hose that had been laid across the base of a stairway.

12/2019
Man overboard – fall from pilot ladder. During boarding a vessel via pilot ladder from a service boat, an IT service technician lost his footing and fell from the second step of pilot ladder into the sea. He was rescued with the assistance of the crew of the service boat.

11/2019
Emergency stop pressed accidentally. It was discovered that a crew member, while passing near to the port azimuth thruster control panel in the engine control room, inadvertently hit the emergency stop button with his elbow, resulting in a stoppage of the thruster.

11/2019
Hand injury during lift operations. The employee who was in the process of retrieving the timber block from underneath the suspended pad sustained hand injuries when the pad fell.

11/2019
Crush injury to hand while attempting to secure crane hook. While attempting to secure a crane hook to the deck handrail with a polypropylene rope, a rigger’s right hand was caught between the hook shank and the handrail.

11/2019
Cabling in ROV hanger inadvertently severed by the ROV launch and recovery frame. During weekly testing of the vessel emergency firefighting pump, the engineer discovered that he could not start the pump.

11/2019
Main ROV lift wire umbilical and bullet parted. While an inspection class ROV was being recovered to deck within its tether management system (TMS) via an over-the-side hydraulic LARS system, the main lift wire parted and both the ROV and TMS fell to the seabed.