What happened A chain assembly weighing 2.3kg fell 10m to deck, just glancing the helmet but potentially causing fatal injuries to a worker below. The incident occurred during lowering of […]
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.
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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
Electrocution incident – make sure electrical equipment is safe!
What happened A vessel cook was received a mains electric shock when he simultaneously touched a metal bain-marie (the metal electrically heated serving containers commonly used in messrooms) AND the […]
Near miss with high pressure gas due to incorrect procedures
What happened A crew narrowly avoided potentially serious problems with a high pressure gas supply by stopping and thinking things through. The near miss occurred whilst a crew were setting […]
MSF: person injured falling between decks
The Marine Safety Forum (MSF) has published Safety Alert 23-06 relating to someone who fell 2m between decks on an AHTS (Anchor handling vessel) alongside in port. What happened The […]
Unexpected Descent and Ascent of Mattress Lifting Frame
What happened? A subsea load close to working divers started moving with no intervention from the crane operator. The incident occurred during movement of concrete mattresses using a mattress handling […]
Restricted air supply to diver
What happened? During a diver recovery drill, a contracted subsea company encountered significant issues that led to the standby diver momentarily losing his main air supply. This restriction in the […]
LTI – crew member fell down open hatch
What happened During mooring, a crew person was attempting to secure the rope on the aft section of the vessel. While performing this task, the person stumbled and fell into […]
Fire in diesel generator following tests
What happened There was a small fire in the engine room on a vessel in port. The incident occurred when a diesel generator was being maintained by a third-party maintenance […]
Chain caught and broke
What happened Crew were removing a hydrogen gland from a generator using a lifting attachment, two chain falls, and an overhead crane. One of the chain fall’s pull chains caught […]
BSEE: Overhaul Ball falls to deck resulting in High Potential near miss
What happened The United States Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has published Safety Alert 460 relating to a dropped object during lifting operations. While conducting crane operations during […]
Serious finger injury in power operated watertight sliding door
What happened A crew person suffered a very serious finger injury in a watertight sliding door. The incident occurred when engine crew were heading to a storage area for an […]
LTI: serious hand injury – fingers lost in unexpected hatch closure
What happened? A crew person was checking the water tightness of the engine room’s emergency hatch cover. Safety lock pins, used to prevent the hatch cover from closing, were missing. […]
Finger injury during lifting operations
What happened With a vessel alongside, crew were using the vessel crane to move a pallet of cylinders (part of the vessel’s hydraulic system) from one deck to another. This […]
Finger injury during shackle handling
What happened During a pennant wire spooling operation, the injured person was trying to remove a 35 tonne SWL shackle from the pennant eye. While trying to jiggle the shackle, […]
Hand and finger injuries
Given that the previous four events in this Safety Flash are all hand injuries, some of them quite serious, even shocking hand injuries, we pause to reflect for a moment, […]
Crew member in small boat slipped and dislocated shoulder
What happened A person was kneeling down in a workboat and was injured when the boat moved suddenly as a result of the sea state. The boat (a small workboat […]
Small boat crew exposed to FPSO process water discharge (fumes and aerosol)
What happened? During diving operations on a live FPSO, the deck crew on the Light Dive Craft (LDC) and Fast Rescue Craft (FRC) were exposed to fumes and aerosols from […]
LTI – crew person cracked shin bone
What happened An engineer suffered a broken shin when he slipped taking a shortcut into the engine room. He went into the engine room down some stairs, in order to […]
Person slipped on stairway while wearing shoe covers
What happened A person was making their way down a vessel staircase, wearing coveralls and safety boots with company approved shoe covers on. While descending the stairs, the person slipped […]
BSEE: Lack of training with hydraulic torque wrench contributes to fatality
What happened The United States Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has published Safety Alert 459 relating to a fatality which occurred on a drillship in the Gulf of […]
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