Fatal injury during lifting operations – Maersk Interceptor
What happened?
The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has completed its investigation of the fatal accident on 7 December 2017 on Maersk Interceptor, a jack-up facility, in which one person was killed and another seriously injured. Several breaches of the (Norwegian) regulations were identified.
This incident occurred in connection with lifting and installing a seawater pump. Four people took part in the work, which involved the use of a steel sling. The latter parted, and the pump fell down. A power cable attached to the pump was pulled along in the fall and hit two people who were in the vicinity. One of them fell into the sea and died, while the other was seriously injured. Under slightly different circumstances, several lives could have been lost.
The incident also had material and financial consequences.
What were the causes?
- The direct cause of the incident was that the lifting sling broke because it was overloaded;
- Underlying causes were multiple and complex and can be related to design weaknesses and inadequacies in following these up, failure to identify risk at several levels, training, and planning and work practice.
The full report can be found here.
Safety Event
Published: 21 December 2018
Download: 
IMCA SF 29/18
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