The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has fined a company an employee was fatally injured while moving heavy machinery. Press release here. What happened Workers were moving a large […]
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
Failed lifting equipment: fatality during pipe erection activities
A member passes us information relating to a non-IMCA fatality at an oil refinery. Lifting equipment failed and a wire rope hit a crew member, causing injuries which proved fatal. […]
Yawing of wind turbine nacelle placed ship in line of fire
What happened A wind turbine started yawing, placing an approaching vessel in the line of fire. A turbine nacelle had been confirmed as locked on requested heading and permission had […]
Near Miss – Damaged Rig Hose
What happened A vessel was engaged in routine operations receiving contaminated oil-based mud from a rig. Upon disconnecting the rig hose and vessel side coupling it was discovered that the […]
MAIB: fatality during transfer from a workboat to a barge
The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has published Accident Investigation Report 6/2021 into the death of a crewman whilst transferring between the workboat Beinn Na Caillich and a barge […]
Failure of dive chamber overhead door centre pin
What happened Minutes after a dive team transferred from the entry lock into the diving bell, there was a failure of the diving bell overhead door centre pin. A “bang” […]
MSF: Cut Hand Whilst Cleaning / Hand Safety
The Marine Safety Forum (MSF) has published Safety Alert 21-10 relating to a crew member who suffered an unpleasant cut to the hand whilst engaged in routine cleaning. What happened […]
Fatality – explosive failure of corroded fire extinguisher
What happened? A person was killed when there was a catastrophic explosive failure of a corroded fire extinguisher. The incident occurred when the person was discharging a corroded handheld cartridge-type, […]
UK HSE: Employee in a port suffers life changing injuries in clamp truck incident
The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) fined the a port following an incident in which an employee was seriously injured by a clamp truck. [Similar to a forklift, but […]
LTI: Hand injury during diving operations
A member reports a serious hand injury suffered by a diver working in the water on floating hoses at an SPM (single point mooring). Two divers were working on unbolting […]
Crew member thrown to the quay by unplanned movement of small boat
Transport Malta’s Marine Safety Investigation Unit (MSIU) has produced a report into an accident on a tugboat in harbour, which can be found here. What happened What went wrong? Some […]
Injuries sustained during maintenance – worker positioning
A member has noted several injuries in the last 6-8 months relating to worker positioning and the use of tools and equipment. A review of these incidents has established a […]
Swedish Club: Lessons learned – crew member loses leg in mooring injury
The Swedish [P&I] Club has recently released a “casebook” containing safety lessons learned from maritime incidents. This useful resource document can be found here: www.swedishclub.com/loss-prevention/cases/case-studies/. One of the case studies […]
Leg injury when struck by rebounding hammer
What happened A crew member was struck on the right lower leg (the shin) by a rebounding hammer. The incident occurred when he was using the hammer to remove a […]
Only a centimetre – an emergency exit hatch blocked by mooring ropes
What happened On a vessel alongside in port, an emergency exit hatch was found to be blocked. A team making a daily inspection tour round the vessel found that they […]
Update to SF 08/21: fatality – person crushed when secured material fell on him
This is an updated version of the event published in SF 08/21, wherein stored metal plates fell on a crewman causing fatal injuries. It was originally shared with one of […]
Hand injury from falling object during lifting operations
What happened A lifting saddle broke, causing a hose to swing and hit a crewman, causing an injury to his hand. The incident occurred at completion of cement pumping between […]
Mooring: increase in first aid cases involving over-exertion
What happened A member has noted that in recent months, there have been several accidents related to over-exertion. Most of these incidents have involved mooring operations, a job that requires […]
LTI during deck cargo operations
What happened A crewman was seriously injured during lifting operations. The incident occurred while lifting pipe bundles from the vessel onto a fixed structure. Two crewmen were ready to hook […]
Fatality: person crushed when secured material fell on him
What happened Stored metal plates fell on a crewman causing fatal injuries. This incident has been shared with one of our members by a client company, and is public domain […]
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