Poor housekeeping practices in turbine tower led to dropped object incident

During the night shift, three technicians were packing away equipment from flange 2 in a turbine tower.

Technician A climbed down the ladder from flange 2 to flange 1.

Technicians B and C remained on flange 2 and were using the lift to transport equipment down.

Technician B noticed that the hatch was still open after technician A had climbed down the ladder and closed the hatch.

When closing the hatch, the 0.5kg (1.3 lbs.) junction box fell 30 metres (98.5 ft) from flange 2 to flange 1 below.

The box struck technician’s A hard hat as he was removing his slider from the rail. He was sent to the hospital as a precaution.

Poor housekeeping and material storage practices - the junction box was resting underneath the floor plate/hatch.

When the technician closed the hatch, the junction box became trapped between the floor plate and hatch causing the cable to pull out of the box and allowing the box to free fall 30 metres below.

Insufficient supervision - the technician was inexperienced.

Ensure all junction boxes are tethered when in use.

Review housekeeping procedure for materials/equipment stored in the turbine towers.

Lifting bags should be supplied to all teams to enable them to store cables securely and equipment tidily.

Full sweeps of the work site should be completed when tasks are finalised as per permit to work (PTW) requirements. Update documentation to include this if needed.

Improve supervision of inexperienced workers.

All new personnel should:

• be allocated a buddy for their first rotation at a minimum.
• wear high visibility helmets for their first rotation.

What can we do to prevent something like this from happening on our site?

Should we increase supervision for new staff?  How?

How do you store junction boxes and wireless tools on your site?

What is your internal housekeeping plan? How can it be improved?