Fatal Fall from Offshore Platform – Investigation Report

On the morning of May 19, 2000, a contract employee was using a portable of Accident winch (come-along) to remove a section of removable guardrail for the purpose of accommodating the installation of the mounting beams of a temporary crane. One end of the come-along was attached to the section of guardrail to be removed, while the other end was attached to a section of fixed guardrail located approximately 5 feet above the guardrail to be removed. As tension was applied to the come-along, the upper guardrail failed at its base welds and detached from the deck. As a result of the detachment, the employee fell approximately 60 feet to the Plus 10 deck and sustained fatal injuries.

2013.04.01 - Fatal Fall from Offshore Platform Figure 1

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Fatal Fall of Shore Worker in Cargo Tank – Investigation Report

At 2258 on 19 February 2010, a German shore worker was fatally injured on board the oil/chemical tanker Bro Arthur. Bro Arthur had part-discharged at Rotterdam before arriving in Hamburg to offload her remaining crude palm oil cargo. A team of three cargo “sweepers” had been arranged under the operational direction of a supercargo (person who has wide experience in cargo operations, and normally acts on behalf of the charterer). While exiting No 2 cargo tank on completion of the “sweeping” operation, one of the “sweepers” fell to the bottom of the tank.

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Fatal Fall Into Ballast Tank – Investigation Report

On 28 January 2009, the chief officer on board the UK registered container ship Ville de Mars fell almost 8 m when descending into a water ballast tank (the vessel’s forward ballast tank). The vessel was on passage in the Gulf of Oman. He was removed from the tank by the ship’s crew and died while being flown to a hospital ashore in Oman by a Royal Navy helicopter. The chief officer had been due to leave the vessel the following day in Jebel Ali, UAE. No postmortem was conducted.

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