Lifting - Person in Line of Fire

What Happened?

An unexpected shift of casings occurred while offloading them from a vessel. The vessel was in position under the port crane and cargo operations commenced with three crew members on deck. The first two lifts were successfully completed. When preparing for the crane hook to come down for the third bundle of casing to be offloaded, two of the crew members laid out lifting slings and then one of them connected the tag line to the aft lifting sling. This crew member then departed the deck. The hook was lowered to deck level, and the remaining two crew members continued with the operation by connecting the crane stinger (wire rope sling) to each leg of the casing bundle hook without checking the connected taglines. The crane commenced taking the weight of the casing bundle, which then slipped and moved aft on the deck. The operation was immediately stopped and the crane operator ceased lifting to enable the crew to disconnect the load and clear the deck.