IMCA reports an incident during which a vessel’s main crane started behaving in an uncontrollable and potentially hazardous way, risking the health of six people.

W hen starting up, a vessel’s main crane started behaving in an uncontrollable and potentially hazardous way. The block and hook were hoisted up to the sheave when the auxiliary wire parted due to the forces applied.

The block and hook were ejected forward until they hit a stair railing, approx. 4m forward of the sheave. Then the block and hook fell approx. 3m down to the deck, and bounced before coming to rest.

Six people were involved in the operation and found to have been at high risk had conditions been slightly different

Two crew were involved in un-hooking; three were in a nearby deck workshop with no barrier in place between them and where the block and hook landed, and the crane operator was in the crane cabin.

When realizing something was wrong, the two personnel on deck quickly vacated the immediate area. No one was harmed.

The main crane auxiliary line encoder unit was damaged due to water ingress, and gave the wrong input to the crane, causing uncontrolled movements of the auxiliary wire as the crane was started up.

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