Near miss: Floor Plate fell from Main Mast during storm
- Safety Flash
- Published on 4 May 2022
- Generated on 17 June 2025
- IMCA SF 11/22
- 2 minute read
A floor plate fell from the main mast to the deck during a storm.
What happened?
At the time there were violent storm force winds of 55 to 60 knots with an 11m swell. A crew member suddenly heard an object falling from above. It landed near the upper deck port forward crane. It was a piece of 50 x 80 cm aluminium plate with 4 holes for securing, weighing about 2Kg. There were no injuries nor property damage.
What went wrong?
The four screws securing the floor plate had sheared. The plate was from the mid platform of the mast at the base the Inmarsat dome mast.
The screws had been replaced by a sub-contractor during fabric repairs, just over one year previously, and were found to be too short, and of too poor a quality, to ensure the plate remained secured adequately.
Actions
- Re-secured the plate with proper fixings.
- Held a thorough check of all similar plates on deck, especially in areas where this particular sub-contractor had been working, so as to avoid similar potential problem.
- Fed back to the sub-contractor about this near miss, requiring higher attention to quality performance in future work.
Related Safety Flashes
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IMCA SF 18/20
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IMCA SF 04/18
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IMCA SF 04/18
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IMCA SF 20/18
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IMCA SF 24/17
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