What happened The American P&I Club, as part of its “Good Catch” safety series, has published a bulletin relating to a towing vessel grounding in which fatigue was a factor. […]
Safety Flashes
IMCA safety flashes disseminate important information on incidents and potential hazards and the lessons learnt from them that can help prevent incidents occurring elsewhere in the industry.
Individual safety events are available individually online, tagged and searchable, while the traditional PDF collections are also available for download.
Submit a Report
All members are encouraged to contribute relevant safety-related information – please visit our Safety Flash Reporting page for details on the submission process.
IMCA Contact
Nicholas Hough
Consultant - Safety and Security
Contact
Safety Events
BSEE – “Green hats” – training and supervision of short service employees
The United States Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has published Safety Alert #440 relating to reducing incidents through increasing training and supervision of short service employees. What happened Since […]
Personal injury – burns from hot engine oil to body and face
CHIRP Maritime, an industry charity facilitating confidential incident reporting from seafarers, has published its Annual Digest 2021, which includes a number of events and incidents of interest to IMCA members. […]
Chemical burns to body
CHIRP Maritime, an industry charity facilitating confidential incident reporting from seafarers, has published its Annual Digest 2021, which includes a number of events and incidents of interest to IMCA members. […]
Fall leading to serious personal injury
What happened A crew member suffered a fall leading to concussion and other serious injuries. The incident happened when he was single-handedly trying to hold and manoeuvre a drill tool […]
High potential incident – Foot trapped under ram cylinder
What happened A person almost had his foot crushed by a ram cylinder on a pipeline coating machine. The incident occurred at a spoolbase, during the application of pipe joint […]
LTI: Diver suffered crush injury to finger
What happened A diver sustained a crush injury to his finger. The incident occurred when a diving support vessel was working on a decommissioning project, and the dive team were […]
Accidental release of free-fall lifeboat
What happened The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) has published safety investigation report M20P0353 relating to the accidental release of a free-fall lifeboat from a bulk carrier. The incident […]
MSF: CO2 system left non-operational after servicing
What Happened The Marine Safety Forum has published Safety Alert 22-10 relating to an important safety system being left non-operational after it was serviced. The incident happened when a vessel […]
Equipment found live: drawings incorrect for Lock-out/Tag-out
What happened? An electrical working foreman was “checking for dead” on control oil pump motor space heaters. It was discovered that the heaters were still live and energized. The heaters […]
Machinery breakdown leads to a collision
CHIRP Maritime, an industry charity facilitating confidential incident reporting from seafarers, has published its Annual Digest 2021, which includes a number of events and incidents of interest to IMCA members. […]
Third-party truck not in appropriate or safe condition
What happened? During preparation for transporting pipe sections from port to a coating supplier’s facility, trucks to be used for the pipes were inspected and several defects identified. Trucks found […]
Mixing of cleaning chemicals
What happened? A worker mixed bleach and toilet cleaner whilst working in the confines of a toilet area onboard a tug. The two chemicals mixed and there was a chemical […]
A focus on journey management
A member reports two serious vehicle incidents, in Brazil and in the Netherlands, which resulted in only minor injuries but could have had much worse outcomes. What happened? Incident 1: […]
USCG: Unexpected Dangers: Lifeboat Remote Control Wires
The United States Coastguard (USCG) has published Safety Alert 07-22 which addresses the importance of visually inspecting lifeboat and davit installations before testing with crewmembers on board, and ensuring crew […]
Damage to flexible riser
What happened? During deployment of a water injection riser from a vessel, damage to the outer coating occurred when it came into contact with the sharp edge of the flare […]
Flash fire on Oxygen gas quad hose
What happened There was a flash fire on an Oxygen hose line onboard a DSV. The incident occurred during routine checks, when an LST (Life Support Technician) reported that the […]
IOGP: Squeezed hand due to unintentional activation of winch
What happened IOGP has published Safety Alert #336 relating to a squeezed hand due to the unintentional activation of a winch. A crane operator stood by a control panel to […]
Don’t ASSUME – verify and check
A member reports a number of serious control of work related accidents and near misses, in which a common cause across them all was seen to be ASSUMPTIONS being made […]
Man overboard from anchor handler tug
What happened A sub-contracted anchor handling tug was performing grapnel run activities using a long chain as a grapnel. Whilst overboarding the chain, a crew member lost balance and fell […]
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