There have been several serious dropped object incidents in offshore Northern Europe, including a near fatality, involving the use of manually operated side-door elevators to lift large diameter well casing.
The incidents involved the unplanned opening of the elevators, during tailing-out or lifting of pipe from a horizontal position, allowing the load to fall. Investigation of the incidents has raised concerns about the safety of the latching mechanism.
View offshore safety notice ‘Failures of manually operated side-door elevators’