Lessons learned: Gangway falls from crane causing one fatality

The incident

The portable gangway, 20 metres long and weighing about 770 kg, needed to be lifted on board and secured for sea in its cradle on deck.

The gangway had four lifting pad eyes, each with a lifting wire sling attached with a shackle. Each wire sling had an eye on the lifting end. These were slipped individually onto the crane’s hook.

During the lifting operation the gangway was controlled by three people, each with a lanyard to guide the gangway. Two were on deck and one on shore. As the lift commenced, the outboard lifting slings were in tension and the inboard slings were slack. When the gangway reached the level of the deck rail, the inboard sling wires remained slack since the inboard end of the gangway was supported by the deck rail. As the outboard end of the portable gangway was lifted slightly above the deck rail, the tension of the outboard slings caused the gangway to swing inboard towards the vessel. This movement was enough to cause the two inboard slings to slip out of the crane hook and the end of the gangway immediately fell to the deck.

On the vessel, one of the crewmembers holding a control lanyard was hit by the falling gangway. Although immediately treated for his injuries he was unresponsive. The victim was transported to a local hospital where he was declared deceased.

The investigation revealed that the information manual produced by the manufacturer of the portable gangway recommended the use of a composite lifting unit with a master link to connect the four wire rope slings to the crane hook. Had this practice been adopted, in conjunction with a spring-loaded safety latch, it is likely that this accident would have been avoided.