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- Safety Flash
- Published on 1 March 2004
- Generated on 11 February 2026
- IMCA SF 02/04
- 1 minute read
A Member has reported the following incident, whereby an employee sustained an injury to his right shoulder when he fell while jumping off a Zodiac inflatable (in a cradle suspended by a crane) onto the vessel deck, using the bulwark as a step.
What happened?
The injury required him to seek hospital treatment and to remain off-duty for four days.
The company involved has noted that this was ‘an incident waiting to happen’, because:
- there had been no access-way/platform on the vessel to allow personnel to transfer safely between the deck and Zodiac.
- project personnel had been jumping between the Zodiac and deck for over two years – this was considered normal practice on the vessel.
- at the time of the incident, the employee’s right diving bootee had grease on its sole, which contributed to his slipping off the bulwark.
Our Member took the following remedial actions:
The company has now provided safe access for personnel to transfer between the Zodiac and deck and has reminded its personnel that: ‘it is everybody’s responsibility to identify and report hazards, so that immediate corrective action can be taken to prevent incidents’.
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