MSF: Near miss – potential dropped object found on bundle of casing

The Marine Safety Forum published Safety Alert 20-11 relating to a potential dropped object in a load.  The near miss incident occurred during offloading of casing from a supply vessel.  The rig crew spotted a hook resting on the bundle.  The load was set down and the job stopped. The hook was later identified as part of the vessel’s cargo securing equipment which had been found defective before use but had not placed in the quarantine area for damaged lifting and securing equipment. The weight of the hook was 1.4 kg. The hook could have fallen 19m on the rig and significantly higher (70m +) to the supply vessel deck.

What were the causes?

• Lack of sufficient pre-lift checks;
• Failure to follow procedures;
• Inadequate supervision and training.

IMCA notes: Unfortunately there is nothing special or noteworthy about this event. The learning for us is that it happened at all.  Continuous vigilance with regard to potential dropped objects, remains of the utmost importance. A search of all the safety events and incidents available through the IMCA Safety Flash web page https://www.imca-int.com/safety-events/ reveals that there are many incidents like this one.

• DROPS – 46 events
• Dropped object – 193 events

IMCA provides for its members the following safety promotional material on dropped objects:

• HSSE 039 – Technip DROPS 
• HSSE 042 Saipem DROPS – choice not chance   
• HSSE 043 Subsea 7 DROPS 
• IMCA SPB 016 pocket card Avoiding dropped objects
• IMCA SPP 04 Avoiding dropped objects