HSE Safety Bulletin – Offshore Crane Safety Systems (link)
This HSE Alert reminds duty holders of the requirement to have measures in place to verify the correct operation and the correct settings of all safety systems and limits on offshore cranes.
The Alert describes two recent incidents on offshore pedestal cranes when the crane boom upper hoist limit systems have failed to prevent the crane booms from being hoisted up too far and against the boom backstops. The continued hoisting resulted in the booms fully compressing the boom backstops causing high loading on the boom upper main chords with the eventual catastrophic failure of the booms.
In light of these incidents, this Alert lists specific actions that should be taken by duty holders.
Source: HSE