Main bell wire rope damaged

At the end of a saturation dive, a main bell wire was damaged by the proximity switch bracket (chandelier) being picked up by a single broken strand on the main bell wire rope. The incident occurred during a bell recovery procedure performed by the winch operator. The Moonpool operator stopped the winch operator from further recovery of the bell after noticing that the proximity switch bracket (chandelier) was in the bell launch and recovery sheave. Dive technicians freed up the chandelier from the sheave, and the bell was safely recovered.

The main bell wire rope was three years old, had been visually inspected, and destruction tested with a positive result of 8:1 factory and above the maximum allowable 10% reduction of MBL as per IMCA D018, two weeks before the incident.

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