Safety Flashes

Incident 1: Fingers and Hands in Rotating Machinery – Employee’s Hand Severed by Machinery A company supplying aluminium parts was fined after an employee suffered serious injuries when using a […]

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) has issued Marine Safety Alert 04-19 entitled Confined spaces: silent and invisible killers.  It serves as a reminder that despite decades of work to […]

What happened? During commissioning activities, a commissioning engineer was found unconscious inside a gas valve unit (GVU).  He received CPR and regained consciousness before being transported to the hospital for […]

This safety alert is intended to educate and inform people on the correct wear, care and inspection requirements of industrial safety helmets, and to provide guidance on how to check […]

What happened? A member of the vessel crew fell into the sea during personnel transfer using a Crew Tender Vessel (CTV).  The incident occurred when the vessel was stood by […]

What happened? While carrying out work to fix the hydraulic arm of an ROV manipulator, the person involved was trying to adjust the position of the piston to align holes […]

A member has circulated guidance on the use of 220V AC portable electrical hand tools.  This followed reported concerns regarding the use of project and sub-contractor supplied 220V AC power […]

What happened? A person cleaning the galley got a mains electric shock; during galley cleaning, the chief cook was using a wet cloth to wipe clean the food preparation areas. […]

What happened? UK Step Change has published two recent safety ‘moments’ relating to battery safety in two different battery chemistries – the first in a lead/acid battery, the second, in […]

What happened? A hydraulic control lever on a console was inadvertently activated, resulting in the unplanned movement of part of the equipment on a drilling derrick on a vessel.  A […]

What happened? Riggers were attempting to lift a pallet of bottled water between decks of a vessel when the load hit an Intermediate Bulk Container (IBC), causing several packets of […]

What happened? A vessel was boarded by thieves whilst at anchor at Callao, Peru.  This was not noticed by the crew until they went forward to anchor stations to weigh […]

What happened? It was discovered on several dive sites that regulators being used on high pressure gas quads of greater than 25% oxygen were not actually suitable for oxygen service.  […]

What happened? During saturation diving at approximately 147 msw, the diving supervisor noticed that Partial Pressure of Oxygen (PPOâ‚‚) was getting low in the diving bell.  The supervisor instructed the […]

What happened? During pipelaying activities on a pipelay barge, Injection Moulded Polypropylene (IMPP) equipment at a coating station got stuck.  Pipelaying activities were stopped and repair operations were started.  The […]

What happened? A barge suffered a total loss of electrical power whilst air diving was in progress.  The incident occurred during diving operations at 18 msw, conducted from a third-party […]

What happened? Before launch of an Air Diving Launch and Recovery System (LARS) from a third-party DSV, the winch wire for the clump weight/guide weight became lodged between the winch […]

What happened? During a planned mobilisation of five Helium gas quads (2% O2, 98% He), one of the gas quads was found to differ from the others.  All of the […]

This is the second safety alert concerning the fatal diving incident initially drawn to members’ attention in IMCA SF 19/18 Diver fatality during subsea lifting operations.  This update specifically relates […]

What happened? On a vessel safety walk-round, an unsafe condition was found whereby alarm push buttons for acknowledgement/mute were kept pressed using toothpicks and scotch tape. While these were not […]