Alert 03 – 08 Dropped Object – Joint of Heavy Weight Drill Pipe
Alert 03 – 08 Dropped Object – Joint of Heavy Weight Drill Pipe
WHAT HAPPENED:
An incident occurred recently which resulted in a lift sub backing out in the elevators and a joint of Heavy Weight drill pipe being released. The drill crew was making up a sub to a single joint of 6-5/8” HW drill pipe. No elevators were available on the rig for the HW pipe size, so a decision was made to use a lift sub to pick-up the HW. The lift sub was made up with chain tongs and “bumped-up” with a hammer. The HW was then picked up in the elevators and moved over a sub and stabbed onto a rotating pin sub that was in the rotary bushing pinhole. The HW was spun-up with a pipe spinner. The torque from the spinner backed out the lift sub from the HW box and the joint of pipe fell across the drill floor. There were no injuries.