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The information available on this Safety Flash and our associated web site is provided in good faith and only for the

purposes of enhancing safety and best practice For the avoidance of doubt no legal liability shall be attached to any

guidance and/or recommendation and/or statement herein contained

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Marine Safety Forum  – Safety Flash 13-36Issued: 6

th August 2013

Subject: 

CCU Door Handle Security

 A cargo carrying unit was lifted from a PSV to a Production Platform. When it was landedon the Production Platform it was identified that one of the cargo carrying unit’s doorhandles was not engaged. The upper retaining jaw which holds the door handle in placehad been bent upwards allowing the door handle to disengage. Potentially, the door couldhave opened as it was being lifted from the PSV to the platform and the contents fallenout.

Investigations indicated that the container had been damaged (as shown below) when askip which had been stowed directly in front of the container doors had been liftedpreviously. The skip had made contact with the container door and forced the retaining jawupwards, releasing the handle.

There were protection wedges built into the container above and below the door; howeverthey failed to prevent this. More recent container designs have created additionalprotection bars running vertically.

Protection wedges

 built into the

container failed to

 prevent damage

8/19/2019 CCU Door Handle Security

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The information available on this Safety Flash and our associated web site is provided in good faith and only for the

purposes of enhancing safety and best practice For the avoidance of doubt no legal liability shall be attached to any

guidance and/or recommendation and/or statement herein contained

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Lessons Learned

  Consideration should be given tocontainer design similar to that shown.

E.G. Vertical Bumpers to further protectlocking mechanism.

  Where possible, cargo which is lowerthan the height of a containers doorhandles should be stowed away fromcontainer doors.

  All persons responsible for loading andoffloading operations (Onshore/Offshore)

should be made aware of the potentialfor this incident to occur and take thenecessary preventative action.

  Consideration to be given to fittingappropriate secondary retention devicesto container doors.

  The use of the Step Change/OGUKCargo Safety and Security Labels(Yellow Labels) is an effective visualindicator to show that the lockingmechanism is in place.