Diver crushed removing wrecks - Outer Hebrides, Scotland

[DandyDon]

HSE notice served after diver killed clearing shipwrecks at Stornoway Port

A health and safety notice has been served after a diver was killed clearing shipwrecks in Stornoway. Luka Budesa was removing shipwrecks to make way

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A health and safety notice has been served after a diver was killed clearing shipwrecks in Stornoway.

Luka Budesa was removing shipwrecks to make way for Stornoway’s new £49million deep water port when he was struck on the head and crushed.

A suspended wreck moved and hit him on the head before crushing his chest and abdomen.

He died on his way to hospital.

It is understood Mr Budesa was working as a sub-contractor rather than directly employed by Orkney-based Leask Marine when the incident happened on August 31 last year.

However, the Health and Safety Executive has still issued the Kirkwall-based firm with a notice, ruling it had failed to “suitably and sufficiently” assess the risk for divers on the site.

Health and safety ‘not managed and monitored’​

Leask Marine operates all over Europe and has delivered more than 500 successful marine projects.

In the HSE’s notice, investigators said the company had “failed to plan, manage and monitor” the project while it was carried out by workers under its control.

This includes “particularly” failing to properly manage and monitor the dismantling by divers of a suspended wreck.

Although Mr Budesa was not employed directly by Leask Marine, the notice states that an assessment of his health and safety was still needed due to the connected work they were undertaking.

A spokesman for Leask Marine said: “Leask Marine would like to express their deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Mr Budesa.

“Leask Marine have responded to the improvement notice outlining revised procedures for the continued phases of the project which HSE have accepted.

“Leask Marine have responded that Mr Budesa was an employee of a sub-contract business to Leask Marine and do not accept Mr Budesa was operating under their direct control, instruction, or supervision at the time of the incident.”

Following the tragedy, a GoFundMe was launched to raise money for Mr Budesa’s family. More than £5,000 was donated.

 

[SlugLife]

My first question, is whether the diver had commercial scuba-training.

One of the reasons this crosses my mind, is because I've been in other discussions recently about "Adventures with Purpose" and them moving cars underwater and appearing to have no relevant training.

 

[KenGordon]

My first question, is whether the diver had commercial scuba-training.

One of the reasons this crosses my mind, is because I've been in other discussions recently about "Adventures with Purpose" and them moving cars underwater and appearing to have no relevant training.

If he was not qualified the HSE would have made a huge fuss of it above the lack of a proper risk assessment. There is no shortage of commercial divers in that part of the world.

I did not know there were wrecks there, but would think twice about diving inside the even the outer harbour.

 

[umhlangan]

My first question, is whether the diver had commercial scuba-training.

One of the reasons this crosses my mind, is because I've been in other discussions recently about "Adventures with Purpose" and them moving cars underwater and appearing to have no relevant training.

I doubt that an international commercial diving and salvage company is going to hire regular scuba divers to work on projects like this, or any other project for that matter.

 

[Akimbo]

My first question, is whether the diver had commercial scuba-training.

I would be amazed if the diver was using Scuba rather than surface-supplied.

Luka Budesa was removing shipwrecks to make way for Stornoway’s new £49million deep water port when he was struck on the head and crushed.

A suspended wreck moved and hit him on the head before crushing his chest and abdomen.

It is nearly impossible and horribly dangerous for divers to work with crane operators without voice communications, and usually with helmet-mounted video. The shackles on the slings alone can be too heavy for divers to manage midwater. Divers have to guide crane operators, often making very small movements.

I doubt that an international commercial diving and salvage company is going to hire regular scuba divers to work on projects like this, or any other project for that matter.

It is pretty common for salvage companies to hire divers as sub-contractors rather than full time employees. Salvage contracts are too sporadic to maintain a large staff of full-time divers.

It is understood Mr Budesa was working as a sub-contractor rather than directly employed by Orkney-based Leask Marine when the incident happened on August 31 last year.

This does not imply that they don't require appropriate commercial diving certification in the jurisdiction they are operating in.

 

[Vicko]

On one of my first jobs we were setting gabions from 30-55m, crane would lower 2 of them and we would guide it to the exact spot. We were using scuba but most of us were wearing full face masks and communication, the older divers worked with a 1.5l bottle and string for communication.
I just saw me or the crane operator misreading the signal and murdering them.

Makes me appreciate surface supply with coms, a lot.
Not sure what wrecks they were working on but remember that a small 3m boat is also a wreck, and just as deadly as a 25m steel tug or patrol boat.

 

[SlugLife]

It is nearly impossible and horribly dangerous for divers to work with crane operators without voice communications, and usually with helmet-mounted video. The shackles on the slings alone can be too heavy for divers to manage midwater. Divers have to guide crane operators, often making very small movements.

About a month ago I recovered an anchor, which turned out to be completely not worth it. I had to go down and back to the surface about 5 times, in order to get the person on the boat to either raise the anchor or lower it, because it was tangled in other anchors and a steel cable. That was not a recovery I should have done, but I can definitely see the value of having such coms, even for something as simple and basic as what I did.

 

[Jared0425]

I'm wondering what sort of "wreck" we are dealing with here and what sort of vintage. If you're dealing with WW1 & WW2 era block ships with 3000+ tonnes, that's a monster of a job. Along with a century worth of corrosion on top. I had a 1903 era freighter drop a 1000lbs piece of steel on us during a penetration dive. It was only held up by a few rivets and our bubbles caused it to come down.