Alert 14 – 29 Personnel Basket Failure – Serious Near Hit
Alert 14 – 29 Personnel Basket Failure – Serious Near Hit
WHAT HAPPENED:
While lifting a Floorhand in a personnel basket to perform scheduled maintenance on the Pipe Racking System inside the derrick, the curved lifting pipe used to suspend the basket partially separated when the basket hung up on an obstruction. The basket and rider were approximately 110 feet above the rig floor when the incident occurred. The rider felt the basket tilt and called “all stop” over a hand held radio he was using to communicate with the banksman. The basket continued to tilt and the rider repeated the command “all stop”. The basket stopped just as the lifting pipe partially failed.
A separate derrick winch line had been anchored to the rig floor, adjacent to the path the basket would travel, to serve as a guideline for the rider. Following the failure, the rider gave the command to lower the basket. He supported his weight by holding onto the guideline as the basket was lowered to the floor. When the basket reached the rig floor, the lifting pipe parted completely from the basket.