What happened? A vessel was departing from port when crew found it necessary to remove the mooring lines from the shoreside bollards with no safe un-boarding/boarding arrangements in place – […]
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
Technical Adviser - HSSE and Offshore Survey
Contact
Safety Events
High potential incident – man injured while falling overboard (MOB)
What happened? Whilst descending stairs to a boat-landing area on an offshore platform, a sub-contracted employee of one of our members tripped on a 2-inch discharge hose that had been […]
Man overboard – fall from pilot ladder
What happened? During boarding a vessel via pilot ladder from a service boat, an IT service technician lost his footing and fell from the second step of pilot ladder into […]
Near miss: emergency stop pressed accidentally
What happened? During DP operations a vessel lost its Port azimuth thruster. The vessel suspended DP operations and safely pulled out of the 500m zone to allow investigation. It was […]
Grounding of bulk carrier Kuzma Minin at Falmouth
What happened? The UK Marine Accident Investigation (MAIB) has published its report into the grounding of the Russian bulk carrier Kuzma Minin at Falmouth Bay, England, in December 2018. See […]
Fire hazard posed by personal electronic devices
What happened? A fire incident occurred in a seafarer’s cabin due to a faulty mobile phone charger. The charger was left plugged in while unattended and an electrical short circuit […]
Loss of rig anchor wire from vessel Karm Fork
What happened? There was an unplanned retraction of the Karm Fork on an Anchor Handling vessel, leading to an anchor tow wire and chain to be dropped. The incident occurred […]
UK HSE prosecution following 2011 fatal explosion in oil refinery
What happened? The UK HSE has prosecuted two companies after an explosion killed four workers and seriously injured another at an oil refinery in Pembrokeshire in 2011. Five workers were […]
UK HSE Investigation into Offshore Gas Explosion
What happened? The UK HSE has fined Marathon Oil UK LLC (Marathon) £1,160,000 following an investigation into a high-pressure gas release on the Brae Alpha offshore platform on 26 December […]
For want of a watchman the ship was lost
What happened? The United States Coast Guard (USCG) has published Marine Safety Alert 07-19 entitled ‘For want of a watchman the ship was lost’. It tells the story of a […]
Fatal fall from height on-board Seatruck Pace in Liverpool in December 2018
What happened? The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has published accident Investigation Report 9/19 into a fatal fall from height. A crewman from the Cypriot registered ro-ro freight vessel […]
Routine test of lifeboat launch results in fatalities
What happened? On the Auger platform in the Gulf of Mexico during routine testing, a lifeboat fell into the sea with two persons on-board. Both were fatally injured. The […]
LTI – fall from height
A service engineer fell off a radar antenna and was seriously injured. The incident happened after two service engineers from a subcontracted company were on a vessel for the day […]
Mooring incident: mooring line slipped off and snapped back
What happened? During mooring operations of a cargo barge, a mooring line slipped off the cargo barge bollards, causing it to whip back and hit the attending tug. The tug […]
LTI during mooring operations
What happened? During mooring operations in the forward mooring deck of a large vessel, crew were in the process of sending out lines to line handlers ashore. When sending out […]
Accidental activation of emergency stop during saturation diving operations
What happened? Emergency stop buttons were accidently activated on a vessel engaged in Saturation Diving Operations in the 500m Zone. This caused the Starboard Voith Schneider Propulsion (VSP) System to […]
Near miss fire – epoxy overheating
What happened? Smoke was seen coming from a 20′ freight container on the deck of a vessel. The smoke was caused by remnants of used epoxy which nearly caught fire. […]
Smouldering coiled extension cable
What happened? While ventilating a manhole in the engine room, the fire alarm was triggered when an electrical extension lead overheated, melting the insulation and started smouldering. What went wrong? […]
Near miss: fire/explosion thermal runaway – lead acid battery
What happened? An overheated and swollen lead acid battery was found on-board a vessel. What went wrong? When charging, the temperature inside the affected battery rose beyond the critical level. […]
Seawater entering cabin caused electrical fault
What happened? During vessel operations, a porthole in a passenger’s cabin was left untightened and slightly ajar. This allowed for seawater to enter the cabin and seep into the electrical […]
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