Lessons learned: Every lifting operation can be hazardous

The incident

A beam trawler was taking fresh water on board from a quayside connection when the skipper decided to even out the vessel’s list by topping up the outboard (port) derrick, from which its fishing gear was suspended. The plan was to finish taking on water and then lower the beam and attached trawl gear onto the deck, ready for the next trip. As the harbour was quite busy, another beam trawler had been berthed outboard of the vessel.

All seemed to be progressing well until there was a sudden loud bang. Peering out from the wheelhouse, the skipper saw that his port side derrick, beam and fishing gear had fallen onto the wheelhouse roof of the other vessel.

Fortunately, the uncontrolled descent of the derrick and fishing gear had been checked by the outboard vessel’s backstay, which meant that this vessel sustained very little physical damage.

With noone on the upper deck of the outboard vessel and all of the inboard vessel’s crew in the wheelhouse or predesignated safe zones, there were also no injuries.

The company investigation identified that the derrick had been inadvertently over-topped, resulting in too much force being applied to the topping wire. On examination of the fallen gear, it became clear that the force had caused the welds on the port derrick lifting lug to fail.

The lug had been supporting the weight of the derrick and the suspended gear so, when the weld gave way, the block, derrick, beam and fishing gear had come crashing down.

Lessons learned

• Plan: Every lifting operation, no matter how routine, can be hazardous. By having, and sticking to, a lifting plan, it can be relatively simple to make sure that no-one gets hurt when things go wrong. By making safety a routine matter, injuries can be avoided. This includes thinking about the possible impact, literally in this case, on adjacent vessels and warning them of your intended operations. The crew’s use of predesignated safe zones during the lifting operation was positive and helped prevent potential serious injuries.
• Check: Most fshing vessels rely on lifting points. Regular inspection, at least annually, of these lifting points by a competent person in accordance with the requirements of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 2006 (LOLER)1 and Marine Guidance Note 619 (F)2 can save lives. Lifting points are subject to intense loads and their failure can have signifcant consequences.
• Revise: In this case, it would have been easy to just weld the lug back on and think nothing more of the accident. By more thoroughly examining what happened, the owner has produced a new lug arrangement that includes a preventer, ftted strain gauges and refned the lifting plan. Clear markings on the topping lift wire also indicate the safe working range. There is a lot to learn from every accident and near miss – taking the time and effort to do so pays dividends.