Alert 13 – 29 Complacency with a Common Job Task Results in Injury to the Derrickman
WHAT HAPPENED:
The morning tour crew had just arrived to work on the last day of their hitch and would begin their shift by continuing trip out operations that were commenced by the daylight crew.
The Driller was watching the Derrickman via a CCTV monitor. After verifying that the rope around the stand was secure and that the elevators were unlatched, he floated the top drive link tilt cylinders back towards well center and began slacking off the top drive to get another stand of pipe. The Driller then looked up towards the fingerboard to verify that the stand had cleared the top drive and, after noticing it had not cleared, he quickly released the brake control joystick to apply full air pressure to the draw works brake to stop the load. The box (top) end of the stand had hung up somewhere on the top drive between the pipe handler stabbing guide and the link tilt actuator. The downward travel of the load had stacked weight on top of the stand and had put a “bow” in the pipe.