Marine Safety Forum issued a Safety Alert summarizing a case where a crewmember experienced two snagging events during lifting operations.
The cases
Both events occurred during retrieval of a dry bulk hose at the same offshore installation. As explained, during the first event, the hose was connected to the starboard aft manifold on the main deck and a hanging off strop was used on the crash rail above.
During retrieval, the strop snagged on something unidentified and damaged the dry bulk hose. Possible snagging points were identified as either the hose pin securing clamp or the stern navigation lamp, but the event was not witnessed, and actual snagging point could not be determined.
At the second event, the same dry bulk hose arrangement was connected to the stbd midships connection and hose pin on top of the crash rail.
During retrieval, the hanging off strop was seen to snag at the securing clamp on the hanging off pin.
Findings
The vessel type is fitted with retractable vertical hose pins at various locations around the main deck crash rail. When extended, the hose pin is held in place with a securing clamp. The hose pins are retracted or lowered to a stowed position when not in use to avoid damage from overhead lifting operations.
The design has been implemented onboard since the vessel was built and there have been no other reported incidents of the same nature at any time. It is unclear why a repeat snagging event occurred at this location, the hose pins are in regular use and had been used several times each day with other bulk hoses without reported incident.
Lessons learned
- When a hazard has been identified, whether realised or suspected, efforts should be made to reduce the likelihood of the hazard to as low as reasonably practicable. Just because it was not a problem today, does not mean it will not be a problem tomorrow.
- As a proactive measure, the screw clamps have been removed and replaced with a flush hexagonal screw. This action has been implemented on all sister vessels and those with a similar arrangement.
- All vessel Safety Officers were instructed to pay particular attention to similar snagging hazards during routine area inspections and pre-work risk assessments.
