Near-miss: Poorly secured load during lifting operations
- Safety Flash
- Published on 11 December 2012
- Generated on 15 August 2025
- IMCA SF 13/12
- 1 minute read
A Member has reported an incident in which equipment being back-loaded was found to be incorrectly and unsafely secured.
What happened?
The incident occurred during demobilisation of a third-party winch and running line monitor power supply unit (RLM PSU). It was noticed when this equipment was returned to the third party base that the RLM PSU had been secured to the winch frame using polypropylene rope in an unsafe manner. This could have resulted in the power pack becoming a potential dropped object or being damaged in transit.
Red arrows illustrating how RLM PSU was secured to winch frame using polypropylene rope
Items appropriately secured with securing straps in place
Our Member’s investigation drew the following conclusions:
- There was no identified storage area for the RLM PSU prior to the backload taking place. Appropriate storage areas should be identified for all third party equipment.
- Third party equipment such as the RLM PSU should be correctly packaged and secured before equipment load out/backload.
- All items should be thoroughly checked before lifting to ensure that appropriate securing arrangements are in place.
Members may also wish to refer to the following documents:
- Guidelines for lifting operations
- Avoiding dropped objects (poster, pocket card)
- Lifting operations (pocket card)
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