No one used to be harm within the incident on thirty first March 2016 – just about 8 years in the past – however a chaotic scene ensued after the cave in of the Rowan Gorilla VII’s increase, in keeping with the Well being & Protection Govt (HSE).
Flying particles broken a close-by vessel and whipped a hose out of keep watch over sooner than it ruptured, leaving a cloud of cement mud.
HSE inspectors described the incident as an “twist of fate ready to occur”.
It came about offshore within the North Sea as workforce have been making ready to recuperate a erroneous submersible pump. Because the crane operator raised the increase to transparent probably the most 3 legs of the set up it failed catastrophically and collapsed.
HSE discovered the rapid reason for the crane cave in used to be that Rowan Drilling (UK) Restricted had now not checked {that a} restrict transfer, designed to stop the crane increase being raised to the purpose of mechanical failure, were appropriately set.
3 of the 4 increase sections fell to sea between the rig and the Solvik Provider provide vessel, which used to be pumping dry cement to the rig by the use of a versatile hose. The crane’s auxiliary hook, cables, parts, and rig particles landed at the deck of the Solvik Provider. The increase tip snagged the versatile hose, dragging it under the ocean floor, inflicting it to rupture and whip again onto the deck of the vessel engulfing it in tremendous cement mud.
Even though no person used to be injured by way of the incident, there have been a minimum of 5 Rowan workers on and across the crane on the time of the cave in. There have been 13 staff onboard the availability vessel.
The HSE investigation discovered that protection mechanisms, designed to stop inadvertent operation of the slew, hoist, and increase joystick controls within the port bow crane cabin had all been overridden to stop them returning to their locked impartial place. An growth understand used to be served at the corporate to treatment problems with regards to the restrict switches and control problems known.
Rowan Drilling (UK) Restricted, of Queens Highway, Aberdeen, pleaded accountable to breaching Segment 2(1) and Segment 3(1) of the Well being and Protection at Paintings and many others. Act 1974 . It used to be fined £130,000 at Aberdeen Sheriff Courtroom on twenty first December 2023.
HSE inspector Brian Kennedy mentioned: “It used to be natural good fortune that no person used to be severely harm or died on account of those failings. As with such a lot of incidents, the instances resulting in the cave in of the port bow crane at the RGVII have been years within the making and symptomatic of a faulty protection control machine that allowed the ones prerequisites to exist and persist.
“This used to be moderately merely an twist of fate ready to occur and illustrates the essential significance of keeping up and trying out crane restrict switches to make sure they are going to all the time give you the meant stage of coverage.”
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