safety alert – Page 2 – Maritime Accident Casebook

Gland Nut and Lockscrew Safety Follows Fatality

Accident, offshore, safety alert, Safety Alerts, safety flash Comments Off

Apr 152014

Fire and a fatality following the ejection of a gland nut and lockscrew assembly from a wellhead while under pressure shortly before starting tubing installation has highlighted the need to ensure manufacturers procedures are always followed suggests a safety alert from the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers.

Lockscrews are commonly used in surface wellhead equipment to mechanically energize or retain internal wellhead components. Lockscrews are not standardized across the industry, so manufacturers’ procedures should always be used for operations that may require manipulation of lockscrews. Work involving gland nut and lockscrew assemblies should be done under the supervision of qualified service personnel from the wellhead equipment provider who have access to the operational procedures, key dimensions, and torque ratings necessary for correct use.

Operators should consider working with their wellhead equipment and service providers to validate the integrity of gland nut and lockscrew assemblies that are exposed to wellbore pressure in the field by taking the following steps: Continue reading »

Corrosion Dropped Thomson Majesty Lifeboat – Malta

Accident, Accident Investigation, Cruise ship, davit-launched, lifeboat, lifeboat accidents, lifeboat safety, safety alert, Safety Alerts, seafarer fatalities Comments Off

Feb 272013

Forward Davit Arm Showing Parted Wire. Photo: Maritime Safety Investigation Unit

Malta’s Maritime Safety Investigation Unit has issued a safety alert following the discovery of significant corrosion on inner strands of a fall wire involved in the falling of of a lifeboat on 10 February 2013. Five seafarers died in the incident which occurred aboard Thomson Majesty while berthed alongside in Santa Crux de La Palma.

Says the safety alert: ” The wire rope had parted approximately where it rested over the topmost sheave, when the davit was in a stowed position.

“The fore and aft davit’s falls were replaced on 22 August 2010 and the next scheduled replacement was August 2014.

“The launching appliance had been dynamically tested in May 2012.

“Initial results of the tests carried out on the parted ends of the wire indicate significant corrosion damage to the inner strands of the wire”. Continue reading »

Make Sure Your Cook Doesn’t Become Unhinged

safety alert, Safety Alerts, safety flash Comments Off

Jul 252011

Nut and Bolts sheared causing uncontrolled swing.

During the cleaning of the Gyro Frying Pan, the handle came away from the fryer as it was being tipped to empty the cleaning fluid as per normal cleaning routine. This caused the fryer to swing uncontrolled and spill water across the galley.

This incident has a very high potential of injury as the Cook may well have been scalded, once again it was extremely fortunate that no injury occurred.

All ships fitted with Gyro Frying Pans should check the gimbal pin and handle assemblies immediately.

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Beware of the Tar, Baby

MSF, safety alert, Safety Alerts Comments Off

Jun 262011

This tar could give you a nasty knock

Some road, somewhere, is missing a lump of tar. We know this because the chunk in question was found inside the forklift pockets of a container. At 1.2 kilos it was heavy enough to give someone a nasty whack, warns Marine Safety Forum, MSF.

Says MSF: During positioning of a container on a rig, a large lump of what appears to be road tar was seen within one of the forklift pockets of the container. The lump measured 30 x 15 x 5 cms and weighed 1.2 kgs.

“The container, which had forklift pockets on all four side, had been round tripped, taken up to the rig and back loaded and taken back up to the rig before the hazard was spotted, some two weeks after its original dispatch.

The investigation could not determine at what point the lump of tar entered the forklift pockets but it could not have been at the supplier nor the supply base, both of which have fully concreted yard surfaces. Therefore it is possible that it was present for some time prior to the container’s original dispatch. Continue reading »

USCG Warns on Wide Recievers

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Feb 212011

Parted air reciever

This Safety Alert addresses safety issues relating to air receivers on Uninspected Towing Vessels
(UTV), but may apply to air receivers on any vessel.

Air receivers, regardless of specific use onboard a UTV, contain extreme amounts of potential energy; an uncontrolled release of this energy may lead to serious injury, death and catastrophic vessel damage. Although this issue involves basic safety and good marine practice, too many related problems have been recently discovered.
Not long ago, an air receiver unexpectedly ruptured with terrible results onboard an UTV on the Upper Mississippi River. A crewmember was seriously injured and paralyzed. Several causal
factors were noted during the casualty investigation; the lack of a relief valve to protect the system and significant corrosion within the receiver. It’s important to note that on unprotected systems, all it takes for the system to be over-pressurized is for the compressor’s pressure switch/contactor or unloader to fail and not shut off the machine. Further, internal corrosion on aged tanks present a latent unsafe condition and may go unnoticed if not inspected. Continue reading »

Delta Injury: Kick In A Rib Became Pain In The Back

Accident, Accident report, MAIB, safety alert, Safety Alerts, safety flash Comments Off

Jan 312011

Reconstruction showing location of injured person and other passengers at the time of accident

MAIB’s report on back injuries sustained by a passenger in a RIB ferrying workers to a jack-up rig on the Thames is relevant to anyone riding or operating these boats. A safety flyer has been issued with the report.

Passengers in small high-speed craft are subject to potentially high shock and vibration impacts, and MAIB is aware of 12 other accidents that have occurred in the 2 years following the similar Celtic Pioneer accident in August 2008, which also
resulted in lower back compression fractures.
The risk of this type of injury can be reduced by ensuring that:
•   occupants are seated in appropriate seating
•   the boat’s helmsman has received suitable training
•   the boat is appropriately designed and outfitted
•   procedures are in place to exclude passengers who may be particularly at risk,
based on medical grounds.

Here is the MAIB summary:

Accident Out Of Character Got The Finger

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Jan 242011

None of us are robots so none of us are perfect. After years of earning a reputation for safe working the brain skips a beat, misses a groove like scratched vinyl record. Some folk call it a brain-fart which, if you’re hungry for long words to put in your next powerpoint presentation, is technically called a maladaptive brain activity change.

Perhaps that is what happened when a normally safe worker maaged to accidentally break a deckhands finger in the latest safety alert from Marine Safety Forum.

Here’s what happened:

During a maintenance period it became necessary to deballast a Methanol tank. Because of the envisaged high work load there were three C/Os onboard and additional staff, the senior C/O
instructed the 2nd C/O to deballast the starboard tank through the port manifold Avery Hardoll connection to sea.

It was known that the non return valve (NRV) was not in place. Continue reading »

NOPSA Alerts On Safety Control Systems Safety

Offshore, safety alert, Safety Alerts Comments Off

Jan 192011

Will the PLC do what's expected or what it's told?

Australia’s National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority has issued a warning regarding the potential for malware or inadequate design of safety-related control functions to cause death or injury when they do not perform in the intended manner. While the alert is aimed at the offshore industry it applies equally to the maritime industry where there has been a number of accidents involving programmable logic controllers.
What happened?
NOPSA has encountered a number of instances, in a diverse range of applications, where Operators have introduced equipment or systems that have potential weaknesses in the design of their safety-related control systems.
In some cases, Operators have been unaware of the significance of control systems as control measures against Major Accident Events and Dangerous Occurrences, and have consequently not used appropriate safety management techniques in their design and operation. Continue reading »

Sod’s Laws, Doors and Compressed Air

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Jan 112011

However low you think the chances of someone walking through a door at precisely the same moment you’re using compressed air and chemicals to clear the pipe next to the door and spitting debris and hazardous chemicals into someone’s face, it is not low enough. That most predictive of all scientific principles, Sod’s Law (Murphy’s Law in the US) says that it will happen.

Here’s a safety alert from Marine Safety Forum:

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