A crane installed on an offshore wind farm installation vessel at a facility in the German port of Rostock crashed during load testing on Saturday, causing damage to the hull.
After two Liebherr mobile harbour cranes collapsed into the port basin in January 2020 and were subsequently salvaged, another serious accident has occurred in the port of Rostock.
During testing operations with a 5500 tons pontoon, the heavy lift crane on DEME ORION 1 collapsed onto the ship’s deck and the quay.
There were 120 people on the ship at the time, and the 12 people who suffered injuries, reportedly all slight, were in the crane’s cabin. Damage is estimated at between €50M and €100M.
Port basin B in the “Überseehafen” has been closed to traffic and an oil barrier has been put in place. The state prosecutor has opened an investigation.
What is interesting is that the crane collapsed backwards, away from the water, suggesting that something sheared and it toppled backwards as the enormous load pressure was suddenly released.
ORION 1, which is due to go on charter to install jackets at the Moray East offshore wind farm in Scotland, was in Rosock for installation of the Liebherr HLC 29500 crane. It was due to be returned to Deme in Belgium in the second half of May, before sailing with GeoSea to Scotland.