IMCA has issued new Safety Flash including lessons learned from incidents related to equipment failure. The following case refers to an incident in which one of the wire stays securing a mast head, parted.
A deck officer on watch heard a loud metal banging sound on the monkey island deck. Immediately both the radar switched off and someone was sent to investigate. One set of mast head securing wires (the port side) had parted from the long bottle screw and the strop had become entangled with a radar scanner.
As a result, there was damage to the front side (radiation side) of the radar scanner cover, and the lower lamp assembly for the main mast head lights was damaged. The entangled strop was cleared away; temporary repairs were made to the radar scanner, and both radars tried out again.
The root cause of the incident was inadequate maintenance and inspection – failure to notice corrosion and impending failure.
IMCA suggests that all similar securing arrangements should be inspected and tightened periodically and
renewed or replaced, as necessary.
Extra attention should be paid to all lashing and securing arrangement when heavy weather is prevalent.
Source: IMCA Safety Flash
