What happened Someone was performing maintenance activities with a grinder, using the grinder to cut and shape wood. When he finished, he switched off the grinder and placed on deck. […]
Safety Flashes
IMCA safety flashes disseminate important information on incidents and potential hazards and the lessons learnt from them that can help prevent incidents occurring elsewhere in the industry.
Individual safety events are available individually online, tagged and searchable, while the traditional PDF collections are also available for download.
Submit a Report
All members are encouraged to contribute relevant safety-related information – please visit our Safety Flash Reporting page for details on the submission process.
IMCA Contact
Nicholas Hough
Consultant - Safety and Security
Contact
Safety Events
Hand injury when caught in machinery
What happened A crew member sustained injuries to his hand and arm when his hand got trapped by a moving belt. The incident occurred during routine maintenance of an Air […]
Positive: vessel improvements made following a man overboard incident
Following a non-fatal man overboard incident involving a member of a mooring gang falling off a tug, as part of the incident investigation, a thorough review was conducted to identify […]
Vessel Near Miss with wellhead
A vessel had a near miss with a wellhead within the 500m zone. The vessel Master was preoccupied and did not notice that the vessel was drifting close to the […]
Lifeboat wire rope failure
During a five-yearly 110% load test of a lifeboat, taking place under third party supervision, the forward fall wire failed, resulting in the lifeboat falling and flipping upside down landing […]
Near miss: uncontrolled movement of mooring chain
What happened There was a sudden and uncontrolled movement of very heavy mooring chain during chain laying operations. A vessel was laying a 170mm diameter bottom chain from a suction […]
Dutch Safety Board: fatality when mooring line snapped
What happened The Dutch Safety Board has issued the following report on a mooring line fatality onboard chemical tanker RN Privodino on 28 June 2018, while entering the Noordersluis lock at Ijmuiden, […]
Stop work authority enforced – unsafe conditions, no appropriate lifting gear available
What happened A vessel received instructions to pick up an aviation fuel tank at an auxiliary platform. The Master tried to tie up to the platform but was not successful […]
Secured material fell against crewman causing injury
What happened A crewman was injured when a stack of assorted sheet metal and wood fell against him. The incident occurred when he was performing a safety walk round in […]
NTSB: Overturning of the Liftboat Kristin Faye
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the United States has published Marine Accident Brief MAB 20-36 relating to the overturning of liftboat (small jack-up) Kristin Faye. Liftboats are three- […]
Safety Flashes – a summary of 2020
This is a summary of the IMCA Safety Flashes of 2020. All the published safety events or incidents are available on the IMCA website as individual web pages at https://legacy.imca-int.com/safety-events. […]
MSF: Cargo Snagging
The Marine Safety Forum (MSF) have published Safety Alert 20-08 relating to the snagging of cargo during lifting operations. What happened A vessel was engaged in deck cargo operations at […]
NTSB: Flooding, sinking and loss of tugboat Mangilao
What happened The National Transportation Safety Board of the United States (NTSB) has published a report entitled MAB 20-33 into the sinking of a tugboat. The tugboat, towed by another […]
How PPE works – a reminder
The Marine Safety Forum (MSF) has published two recent incidents in which failure to wear PPE was a factor. In the first, there was deliberate failure to wear PPE where […]
Broken finger during ROV maintenance
What happened A worker broke his finger whilst working on an ROV. The incident occurred during ROV maintenance when he was single-handedly removing a bumper bar located above head height. […]
Unexpected truck movement caused rigger to fall off a ladder
An unexpected movement of a container loaded truck during disconnection of the container’s rigging, caused a rigger to fall off a ladder leaning against the container. Two containers were being […]
LTI: Person injured by a battery explosion on vessel deck
What happened A battery blew up, causing the lid of the battery housing to shoot upwards and hit one of the persons working on it, causing significant facial injuries. The […]
Serious LTI – deck crew member struck by termination head/flexible
During a flexible jumper installation operation, the 1st end termination head had been transferred over the Open Vertical Laying System and deployed through the vessel moonpool ready to initiate laydown. […]
LTI Incident – Crew Struck by Cargo During Lifting Operations
What happened During routine cargo operation on the main deck, crew were unlashing the load (an empty pipe container) when the crane operator lifted the load without warning. One crewman […]
Injury caused by closing fire flap
What happened? A crewman was injured when there was an uncontrolled and unplanned closure of a fire flap. The crewman was filling an expansion tank through the engine room ventilation […]
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