During cable trans-spooling operations, someone almost suffered a very serious head injury. What happened? Whilst a messenger rope (a mooring line) was being pulled across from a cable vessel to […]
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
Rope under tension parted on deck
What happened A wire rope parted under tension and struck someone’s helmet. There was no injury. The incident occurred during preparation for a shore-side pull of an export cable; the […]
LTI: three fingers badly cut while handling a long brass bar
What happened? A crewman on a vessel suffered laceration on three fingers of the left hand while attempting to remove brass bar from the storage rack. The injury caused an […]
Snagged load, a sling snaps, dropped objects: persons injured
The Britannia P&I Club has shared Incident Case Study No.9 relating to how two crew members on a general cargo ship were injured when a suspended load fell and struck […]
MAIB: Crush fatality during lifting operations
The UK MAIB (Marine Accident Investigation Branch) has published Report 12/2021 into a fatal crush accident which occurred while a gantry crane was moving a hatch cover, on board the […]
Serious incident: topsides started swinging during lifting
What happened During lifting operations, a topsides connected to pre-tensioned rigging became unstable and prematurely lifted off its substructure. Two rope access technicians were on the substructure at the time […]
UK HSE: employee scalped when hair trapped in a pillar drill
What happened The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has fined a company after an employee received scalping injuries when her hair became entangled in a pillar drill. Press release […]
MSF: Hand Injury Sustained During Routine Checks
The Marine Safety Forum (MSF) has published Safety Alert 21-13 relating to a hand injury sustained during routine activities. What happened? During routine weekly checks, someone was performing tests for […]
LTI: person injured when hook parted during lifting operations
What happened Two crew were stood under a 3m depth skid of a cable installation plough calibrating it when part of the rigging holding the plough parted causing it to […]
UK HSE: Employee fatally injured while moving heavy equipment
The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has fined a company an employee was fatally injured while moving heavy machinery. Press release here. What happened Workers were moving a large […]
Failed lifting equipment: fatality during pipe erection activities
A member passes us information relating to a non-IMCA fatality at an oil refinery. Lifting equipment failed and a wire rope hit a crew member, causing injuries which proved fatal. […]
Yawing of wind turbine nacelle placed ship in line of fire
What happened A wind turbine started yawing, placing an approaching vessel in the line of fire. A turbine nacelle had been confirmed as locked on requested heading and permission had […]
Near Miss – Damaged Rig Hose
What happened A vessel was engaged in routine operations receiving contaminated oil-based mud from a rig. Upon disconnecting the rig hose and vessel side coupling it was discovered that the […]
MAIB: fatality during transfer from a workboat to a barge
The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has published Accident Investigation Report 6/2021 into the death of a crewman whilst transferring between the workboat Beinn Na Caillich and a barge […]
Failure of dive chamber overhead door centre pin
What happened Minutes after a dive team transferred from the entry lock into the diving bell, there was a failure of the diving bell overhead door centre pin. A “bang” […]
MSF: Cut Hand Whilst Cleaning / Hand Safety
The Marine Safety Forum (MSF) has published Safety Alert 21-10 relating to a crew member who suffered an unpleasant cut to the hand whilst engaged in routine cleaning. What happened […]
Fatality – explosive failure of corroded fire extinguisher
What happened? A person was killed when there was a catastrophic explosive failure of a corroded fire extinguisher. The incident occurred when the person was discharging a corroded handheld cartridge-type, […]
UK HSE: Employee in a port suffers life changing injuries in clamp truck incident
The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) fined the a port following an incident in which an employee was seriously injured by a clamp truck. [Similar to a forklift, but […]
LTI: Hand injury during diving operations
A member reports a serious hand injury suffered by a diver working in the water on floating hoses at an SPM (single point mooring). Two divers were working on unbolting […]
Crew member thrown to the quay by unplanned movement of small boat
Transport Malta’s Marine Safety Investigation Unit (MSIU) has produced a report into an accident on a tugboat in harbour, which can be found here. What happened What went wrong? Some […]
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