Crane block sheave guard dropped from 25 metres

Cause & Consequence

• Fall from height

Contributing Factor

• Competence

Description of Process

A container was being repositioned on a laydown area. The crane was being used, utilizing the whip line and a pennant. The crane main block was not being utilized due to the low weight of the load.

Description of Incident

During the lift, a member of the deck crew heard a loud noise. On investigation, he found that the securing pin for the main block sheave guard had detached from the main crane block and fallen approximately 25 metres to the deck below.

Crane operations were immediately halted and the crane main block was brought to deck level for inspection. The fallen sheave guard weighed 0.8 kg and landed 2 metres from a member of the deck crew. This is a potential fatality on the DROPs calculator.

The sheave guide was secured by a spring clip. The crane block was supplied with this spring clip configuration. It cannot be determined if the clip had failed or was not installed correctly.

Good Practice Guidance

The spring clip on the sheave guide was removed and replaced by a bolted configuration.

All cranes in the fleet were inspected to ensure the same configuration was not present.

Suppliers were informed of incident to ensure they no longer supply blocks with this configuration.

Planned maintenance tasks amended to ensure checks are carried out on condition of sheave guards.