What happened During offshore subsea operations, an air diver reported to the surface that his helmet had flooded. The supervisor instructed the diver to return to the basket. He then […]
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 dropped object near miss: Steel ferrule failure
What happened A winch wire failed causing a pennant assembly and wire to fall directly into a crane basket. There were no injuries. The incident occurred whilst operating a forward […]
Stored energy near miss: Person nearly hit by equipment caught during light daughtercraft operations
What happened A stand-by diver on a light daughtercraft (LDC) was nearly hit by a flying block and tackle, which was thrown towards him by an unplanned release of tension […]
Loss of sight in right eye: Misdiagnosis of illness
What happened A crew member on an ocean-going cargo vessel lost the sight in his right eye. He was self-medicating what he thought was a common cold for 4-5 days […]
Small boat deployment near miss incident
What happened? A vessel was carrying out a monthly rescue boat drill when, as a result of procedures not being followed, there was a sudden and unplanned deployment of the […]
Flooding in steering gear compartment
What happened? A vessel lost control of its steering gear due to leakage through the Karm fork seals, leading to uncontrolled flooding in the steering compartment. The engine room received […]
Lost time injury (LTI): loose grating fell from crane, a man fell through and was injured
What happened? A crane operator stepped on a loose piece of grating on the crane walkway. The grating fell 18m to deck below, damaging some stairs. The crane operator fell […]
Crewman got cement dust in his eyes
What happened? During the discharging of a cement tank on board a vessel, a crewman was standing in the path of a blow back of cement dust, and the dust […]
Failure of pipework in fuel tanks
What happened? Water ingress into a fuel tank was discovered to be from leaking pipework. Water ingress was reported into a fuel tank from two seawater lines running through the […]
Two near misses: loads fell from height to deck
What happened? During two recent lifting operations, loads fell from height to the deck. In one case the rigging crew were close to where the load landed – the incident […]
Worker was injured by a fork lift truck
What happened? A worker wasstruck by a reversing fork lift truck which resulted in him fracturing his pelvis. His employer was prosecuted by the UK Health & Safety Executive (UK […]
Passenger safety in retrofitted mini-vans/buses
What happened? An International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) member reports on an audit into the use of retrofitted vehicles, e.g. converted cargo-duty mini-vans/buses for passenger transportation. Inspections […]
Counterfeit training certificates
What happened? IMCA has been advised that there has been a recent increase in counterfeit training certificates in circulation for crane operators, riggers, banksman/slingers etc. It is reported that the […]
Fatality during unpacking of heavy electrical panel equipment
What happened? Step Change UK report a fatal incident which occurred during the unpacking of heavy electrical equipment on an offshore production platform. A Variable Speed Drive electrical panel, weighing […]
Incorrect pressure gauge on high pressure supply line
What happened? The International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) has published Safety Alert 284 relating to a small steam leak from a pressure gauge on the high pressure […]
Power loss within dive control
What happened? During diving operations, there was a power loss scenario within dive control whereby both circuit breakers after the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) tripped, causing a loss of power […]
Hand injury whilst using pillar drill
What happened The Marine Safety Forum (MSF) has published an alert in which someone was injured whilst using a pillar drill. An experienced engineer was changing out a drill bit […]
Unsafe mooring practices
What happened During a routine marine inspection of a vessel it was observed that rope lines had been attached to the mooring winch control levers to facilitate ‘remote’ operation of […]
Painter parted during small boat operations
What happened The Marine Safety Forum (MSF) reports an incident in which the forward painter quick release on a fast rescue craft (FRC) parted during recovery of the boat. Three […]
Stored energy – Worker scalded when hot ash dropped into water
What happened The UK HSE reports that a company was fined after a worker received severe burns to his upper body and face. The incident occurred when a worker was […]
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