Alert 10 – 12 “Struck by Incident” on Monkey-Board Results in a Fatality
WHAT HAPPENED:
It was decided to pull three stands of 5” drill pipe out of the hole. Since the derrickman was unavailable, a floorman was assigned to work the monkey-board to rack back the drill pipe stands. The floorman unlatched the drill pipe from the elevators and used the remotely operated derrick winch to pull the drill pipe back to rack it. As the driller commenced lowering the travelling block, the winch wire suddenly became slack allowing the drill pipe to move into the path of the descending top drive system (TDS), making contact with it. The impact caused the drill pipe to deflect and move toward the other side of the monkey board; pulling the winch wire along with it. The floorman, was hit at the abdomen by either the pipe and the winch wire or only by the wire. While the injured person was under medical attention and monitoring by the rig doctor, he succumbed to his injuries about two hours after the incident. Photos below are a recreation of the incident.