OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14558126
EQUIPMENT FAILURE,DROWN,LIFE JACKET,BOAT,WATER
Event description
Crew member drowns when salvaged tug sinks
Investigation abstract
On June 25, 1988, a 600 ton Manitowoc floating crane was used to raise a tug tha t had sunk in 45 ft of water. After the tug was raised to the surface, a crew of seven boarded to open hatches and pump water from ballast tanks. All seven crew men were on deck when the aft sling, port side shackle (pin) failed. The tug re- entered the water, stern first. This created a suction that pulled all the emplo yees under the water. They were not wearing personal flotation devices. All surf aced except Employee #1. Several underwater searches failed to locate his body. On July 24, 1988, the tug was again lifted to the surface and Employee #1's body was found in the crew compartment.
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 36 M
- Nature of injury
- 2
- Part of body
- 28
- Event type
- 8
- Source
- 41
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 20
- Environmental factor
- 8
- Task assigned
- 1
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.