NOPSEMA: person injured in chain hoist incident

The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) of Australia has published Safety Alert #73 relating to an incident on an offshore facility where members of the workforce were impacted during a lifting operation. One member of the workforce was injured and transferred onshore for medical treatment.

What happened

The incident involved a monorail hoist dropping a 500kg piping spool (including ancillaries) when its beam trolley, chain hoist and suspended load overran the end-stop.

What went wrong?

NOPSEMA’s preliminary findings identified that

• The monorail hoist was not fit for purpose, specifically the monorail end stops and beam trolley width;
• The beam trolley had been modified outside of management of change processes;
• The lift plan was not followed, resulting in unsafe operation of the monorail hoist.

NOPSEMA reminded duty holders that “all lifting equipment must be designed, installed, inspected, and maintained in accordance with the relevant standards and by a competent person.”

Lessons learned

NOPSEMA noted the following:

• Monorails, including their end stops and attachment to supporting structures, must be designed, installed, and inspected in accordance with the requirements of the relevant standards by a competent person;
• Serially produced lifting equipment, including monorail beam trolleys, must not be modified from the original equipment manufacturer design;
• Appropriate lifting equipment must be selected for use for the specific lifting application;
• Monorail hoist systems are designed for the vertical lifting/lowering and lateral transfer of loads. Monorail hoists must not be used for dragging loads and non-vertical lifting as it may result in a failure of the monorail beam/beam trolley/end stops and/or the dropping of the load.

Members may wish to review:

• Lost time injury (LTI): Dropped object incident [very similar if not identical incident in 2013, immediate cause being There was no end stopper and the trolley fell off the H-beam. It fell approximately 1.2 meters, glancing off the injured person’s helmet and landing on deck.]
• HSE: Catastrophic failure of marine loading arm
• Chain hoist failure resulting in a serious near miss