The Marine Safety Forum issued a Safety Alert on an incident involving pre-lay anchor operations. During these operations, the decision was made to manually recover and reposition the UHMWPE fibre rope, which is designed to dissipate energy quickly and prevent whip lash if it snaps, from the vessel’s stopper pins.
The plan was changed to utilise the tugger for retrieval. Although the task changed from Manual Handling to Lifting and Hoisting, the work party remained in their original positions.
During tugger operations, the fibre rope, which had been re-sited around the stopper pins, came under tension resulting in the starboard side coming free of the stopper pin, travel in an upwards and port direction, passing over the head of the IP, before landing on the deck and traveling back in the direction of origin.
The fibre rope contacted the IP’s leg, causing him to fall and land on his arm. IP sustained minor injuries. The chain section within the lasso landed in close proximity to the IP.
Why Did it Happen / Cause
The operation moved from a Manual Handling Task to a Lifting and Hoisting Operation without a sufficient risk assessment. As a result of an insufficient risk assessment, the work party remained in their original positions. Work Activity was being monitored by a supervisor who did not stop the job after the plan changed.
Corrective Actions Taken / Recommendations
- Procedures updated to ensure vessel stopper pins are retracted during lasso retrieval tasks.
- Risk Assessment enhanced to include line of fire potential during lasso retrieval tasks.
