IMCASF - Feb 16
IMCASF - Feb 16
IMCASF - Feb 16
These flashes summarise key safety matters and incidents, allowing wider dissemination of lessons learnt from them. The information below has been
provided in good faith by members and should be reviewed individually by recipients, who will determine its relevance to their own operations.
The effectiveness of the IMCA safety flash system depends on receiving reports from members in order to pass on information and avoid repeat incidents.
Please consider adding the IMCA secretariat (imca@imca-int.com) to your internal distribution list for safety alerts and/or manually submitting information
on specific incidents you consider may be relevant. All information will be anonymised or sanitised, as appropriate.
A number of other organisations issue safety flashes and similar documents which may be of interest to IMCA members. Where these are particularly relevant,
these may be summarised or highlighted here. Links to known relevant websites are provided at www.imca-int.com/links Additional links should be submitted
to webmaster@imca-int.com
Any actions, lessons learnt, recommendations and suggestions in IMCA safety flashes are generated by the submitting organisation. IMCA safety flashes
provide, in good faith, safety information for the benefit of members and do not necessarily constitute IMCA guidance, nor represent the official view of the
Association or its members.
Summary
In the interest of timely publication, this safety flash is a combination of different incidents. We again cover the
issue of downdraft from helicopter rotors; a near miss incident during a shallow water saturation dive involving a
diver’s umbilical becoming fouled (no harm came to the diver); and a failure to follow instructions on the part of a
senior crew member that led to him slipping on deck during rough weather and breaking his arm. Finally, two
recent email scams highlight the importance to members of good IT security or cybersecurity.
An S92A helicopter landed on a platform helideck, and the downdraft force lifted and blew two bags, each weighing
10kg, from the baggage cage. They landed on a lower level 10m below – fortunately no personnel were on the
lower level at the time.
Similar incidents keep occurring in other parts of the world. All of these objects were unsecured and/or
inadequately stored. All incidents had the potential to cause serious injury to personnel or damage to the vessel
or the platform structure – or in some cases the helicopter.
Members may wish to refer to the following incidents (search word: downwash):
IMCA SF 08/14 – Incident 2 – Unsecured object lifted by helicopter downwash (this incident may be the same
one as the second one identified above by OGUK).
The diver had made his way to the structure through the hoop. He was preparing to move into the structure by
pulling the required length of slack umbilical through to his location at the edge of the structure, before moving to
the work location. This meant the diver had to pull through approximately 23m of working umbilical in order to
access the job, which was in the centre of the jacket. The umbilical was slightly negatively buoyant. Whilst the
diver was pulling through the 23m of working slack at the jacket, a bight formed below him. The bight was carried
by the prevailing current (which was setting towards the aerated discharge), and was drawn into the aerated
discharge. As the caisson base was only 2m below the 15m elevation, the aerated water lifted the bight of umbilical
upwards and around the caisson resulting in diver 2 being unable to pull through his slack.
The platform was subsequently shut down to allow the umbilical to be freed. Both divers then returned safely to
the diving bell and the bell was recovered to the vessel.
Camera view of fouled umbilical.
Members may wish to refer to the following incidents (search words: fouled):
IMCA SF 01/10 – Incident 1 – Diver fouled on descending load.
3 Slip/Trip Resulting in Lost Time Injury (LTI)
A member has reported an incident in which a crewman slipped on deck and fell, resulting in a broken arm. The
incident occurred when the chief engineer was returning to the engine room from the bridge via the
accommodation. In spite of instructions to stop personnel going on deck during heavy weather, the chief engineer
decided to leave the accommodation in the winch housing area to return to the machinery spaces.
Outside, there was a small raised deck area, with two steps
down to the main deck. The non-skid paint in this area was
worn and as the chief engineer stepped out onto this area he
slipped and fell forward. His fall and impact caused a fracture
of his right upper arm. He received first aid treatment on-
board, before being medevac’d ashore for further treatment.
The diagram to the right shows the injured persons path and
incident cause. He left the accommodation via Position 1
into the winch housing area.
Members may wish to refer to IMCA Safety Flash 20/15 the focus of which is slips, trips and falls.
Incident 1 Incident 2
Information has been brought to IMCA’s attention A member has reported an attempt in which a
regarding a scam or fraud attempt made, whereby an company was defrauded of several hundred
“internal” email was received which purported to be thousand dollars through email fraud. The incident
from a Chief Executive. The email appeared to come occurred when the company was seeking to
from the correct and bona fide email address; it was legitimately purchase reconditioned equipment from
personally addressed to the correct person dealing a vendor in a different part of the world.
with such matters, and it contained clear instructions,
again ostensibly from the CEO, to pass certain This was a deliberate attempt to defraud lasting
confidential details to certain private email several weeks, involving more than one email. By
addresses. using a subtle and difficult to notice change to email
addresses, the fraudster was able to persuade
It was a fake “phishing” email – an inappropriate employees of the company to transfer funds into a
attempt, by persons unknown, to extract bank account other than that specified by the true
information. Members should be aware of the risks vendor of the equipment.
of email theft and scamming of this sort and should
be alert to the possibility that emails that appear to Whilst the incident was reported to the local police,
be from legitimate email addresses may prove to be to the banks involved and to Interpol, the
fake. international nature of the fraud meant that the
funds could not be recovered.
As with bank phishing scam emails, close attention
should be paid to the details of wording, spelling,
grammar and context, which often provide clues to
the fact that an email is fake. In the above example,
the suggested use of private email addresses for
professional purposes was the clue to the email being
a scam. In this case, the attempt to defraud was not
successful.
Lessons learnt:
Members should remain vigilant, liaise with their own IT departments and to continue to work to ensure the safety
and security of their internal and external email communications.
It is of particular importance to take care when there is unfamiliarity with terminology or when administration of
this sort is being carried out by persons whose first language may not be the same language as that in which the
business communication is taking place.
IMCA has a Security workgroup that is a workgroup of the Safety, Environment & Legislation (SEL) Core Committee.
Though initially created to address piracy and the International Ship & Port Facility Security (ISPS) code, part of its
work today is to address “cyber security” issues of this sort. Further information can be found from IMCA technical
adviser Chris Baldwin chris.baldwin@imca-int.com