Dangerous occurrence involving a mobile crane
- Safety Flash
- Published on 1 July 2001
- Generated on 10 November 2025
- IMCA SF 07/01
- 1 minute read
A Member has notified us of a serious incident involving a mobile crane onboard one of its vessels.
What happened?
The crane was being utilised to install a spool piece subsea. The crane was severely overloaded and its track lifted off the vessel deck as it started to topple over. The load was released and the crane fell back to deck, suffering extensive damage in the process. The overload protection mechanism on the crane had been deactivated.
The following actions were taken:
The company involved has notified all of its vessels and work sites, which were requested to inspect their cranes and lifting equipment to ensure that all overload protection mechanisms are installed, operational and activated.
It has stressed that no unauthorised modifications of lifting equipment are permitted.
The company has also reiterated its policy for lifting operations, which includes ensuring:
- any safety devices installed on lifting equipment are operational and activated.
- the load does not exceed the dynamic or static capacity of the lifting equipment, in accordance with the conditions on the approved capacity chart for the lifting equipment.
- the actual load has been verified, including a test, if necessary.
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