What happened A chain hoist failure resulted in a chain link breaking which caused an 800kg load to fall to deck from a height of 1 metre. Personnel were working […]
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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
Broken Chinese Finger
What happened During a reeving operation of the forward crane auxiliary hoist, there was a failure of a “Chinese Finger” between the messenger wire and auxiliary hoist wire. About 6m […]
Damage to bulwarks during overboarding of mattresses
What happened During the overboarding of a mattress stack (3x 150mm mattresses) using a mattress frame, the mattresses made contact with the port side bulwarks causing damage. Before and during […]
LTI – Struck when anchor wire end pulled free of drum clamps
What happened? A person was seriously injured when he was struck by the end of a 58mm anchor wire. The incident occurred when crew were working on replacing out several […]
Lost Time Injuries due to a failed mooring line
What happened? A vessel was mobilising and was moored stern to the quayside. It was moored with one aft mooring rope at each side and thruster control from the vessel, […]
American P&I Club: Extreme bollard pull
The American P&I Club, as part of it’s “Good Catch” safety series, has published learnings from an incident where bollards were pulled right out of the ground of the dock […]
BSEE/USCG: Dealing with extreme weather events
The United States Coastguard (USCG) and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) have each published a joint Safety Alert relating to the reasons for a drillship’s unsuccessful attempts to […]
Infection: a scratched elbow turns into an LTI
What happened A technician banged an elbow whilst climbing out from under the slipring on a wind turbine generator. The technician notified the site manager that it was just a […]
NTSB: watertight doors – vessel sank after flooding
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the United States has published findings from an investigation into the flooding and sinking of a towing vessel. What happened A towing vessel […]
Fire at sea – some timely reminders (Safety4Sea)
The online safety magazine https://safety4sea.com, which amongst other organisations, re-publishes IMCA safety flashes, has published an article entitled “Tackling fire onboard: Where we stand”. It is based on findings from […]
High potential: electric shock near miss
What happened? An engineer suffered a minor electrical shock while troubleshooting a faulty 690V electric motor. The engineer checked the drive belt and then proceeded to measure the phases. Measuring […]
Fatal crush incident between platform supply vessel and fast rescue craft (2012)
This is an old incident which occurred ten years ago in Aberdeen. The initial Marine Accident Investigation Branch report here was brought to members’ attention as IMCA SF 04/13 Fatal […]
Crosby – Important safety notice for 7/8″ 6.5t Anchor Shackles
The following information is a communication from the Crosby Group relating to shackles.
MSF: Corrosion in fire-fighting equipment
What happened The Marine Safety Forum (MSF) has published Safety Alert 22-09 relating to observations involving the CO2 firefighting system onboard a vessel. Significant corrosion was found during routine monthly […]
Searchlight fell from vessel during heavy weather
What happened The starboard wing searchlight became detached from its mounting bracket in heavy weather, and fell directly into the sea, snapping the secondary tether that was in place. What […]
USCG: Exceeding electrical duty rating can lead to failure
The United States Coastguard (USCG) has published Safety Alert 03-22 relating to the importance of verifying the condition and electrical duty ratings of the motor starter contactors in winch controllers […]
Near miss: grinder disc rotation set up in the wrong direction
What happened In preparation for a forthcoming dive a GR29 underwater grinder was requested to be set up by the topside technician to be used for left-handed cutting to assist […]
Surface decompression near-miss
What happened? During surface decompression, following a SURDO2 42msw/40min dive, the depth of the chamber was unintentionally decreased from 12msw to 5msw forty minutes into the decompression. Immediately after this […]
This is not a drill…an LTI during a drill (MSF)
What happened The Marine Safety Forum (MSF) reports in Safety Alert 22-08 an incident in which someone was injured during a drill. Crew on a vessel were undertaking a programme […]
Safe Use of Ladders and Stepladders
The Ladder Association, in co-operation with the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published Guidance Document LA455 on the safe use of ladders and stepladders, found here: https://ladderassociation.org.uk/la455/. In […]
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