NATIONAL MAINTENANCE & REPAIR, INC.

On 2/21/2019, two employees were working to repair/resurface a 120-inch, five blade, four-ton wheel propeller inside the propeller repair shop at a shipyard repair facility. The propeller was just removed from the straightening press and the employees were in the process of moving it over to a floor stand so they could weld it, grind it and apply cosmetic treatment to it. They used an under the hook hoist system to move the propeller over to the floor stand. Once in position, they attempted to place the propeller on the stand by lowering it down onto the top of the stand and then slacking the chain. However, it would not sit flush on the stand and both agreed that they needed a different stand. One employee went to get a different stand, heard a crash and saw that the propeller had started to slide off the stand with the hoist chains now tight. The second employee suffered a deep laceration/fracture to their left leg.