Fall fatality during platform abandonment

  • Safety Flash
  • Published on 10 July 2012
  • Generated on 18 September 2025
  • IMCA SF 07/12
  • 1 minute read

The US Department of the Interior Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) Gulf of Mexico outer continental shelf (OCS) region has published a safety flash regarding an incident in which an offshore employee was fatally injured while assisting in plugging and abandonment of a well and decommissioning a production platform.

What happened?

The incident occurred at night; the worker, working at the top of the well, was dragged by a load into an exposed well-access opening in the deck, and fell to his death.

The BSEE safety alert may be downloaded here.

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