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High potential near miss: dropped object (flood lamp) - DEV imca
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High potential near miss: dropped object (flood lamp)

What happened?

Yard personnel found a flood lamp broken on the ground.  It was found to have fallen from a VLS tower that had been in long-term storage for a number of years.  There were no injuries, however the area where the lamp landed was regularly attended by workers.

The lamp weighed 15kg with the glass and bulb. It landed about 0.5m from the base of tower (red structure in top right corner).
The flood lamp fell approximately 10 metres

What went wrong?  What were the causes?

  • Mounting bolts and bracket, together with secondary securing wire, were fully corroded;
  • There had been no maintenance, nor inspections of any kind during the storage period;
  • There had been no evaluation carried out at the start of the storage period, to consider removal of this type of ancillary equipment, or to increase secondary securing.

What lessons were learned?

  • Ensure storage philosophy and maintenance regime is discussed properly to ensure continued integrity of long-term stored assets;
  • Ensure dropped object surveys include equipment in long-term storage;
  • Consider removal of as many ancillary items as sensible, when initiating the long-term storage of equipment;
  • Focus on material selection for secondary securing; ideally using seawater resistant stainless steel with double securing clips to withstand corrosion.

Members may wish to refer to:

Safety Event

Published: 13 February 2019
Download: IMCA SF 02/19

Relevant life-saving rules:
IMCA Safety Flashes
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IMCA Safety Flashes summarise key safety matters and incidents, allowing lessons to be more easily learnt for the benefit of all. The effectiveness of the IMCA Safety Flash system depends on Members sharing information and so avoiding repeat incidents. Please consider adding safetyreports@imca-int.com to your internal distribution list for safety alerts or manually submitting information on incidents you consider may be relevant. All information is anonymised or sanitised, as appropriate.

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