Fire Forced Crane Operator To Jump To His Death [Haldia port (W. Bengal), India – 27 April 2019]

Posted by admin on Apr 28, 2019 in Bulletins

With great regret, Blueoceana Company relates information coming to us this morning confirming the death of the mobile harbor crane operator who was forced to jump from an elevated (50′) counterweight near his operating station to escape the flames engulfing the lifting appliance he had been operating at a bulk coal marine terminal in West Bengal, India yesterday.

The cause of the fire has been attributed to errors made in the refueling of the crane.

As the media reports linked to below indicate, Mr. Dravin Rai, 28, had been responsive and articulate earlier in the day, a few hours after he had jumped into a makeshift net held by a dozen or so of his fellow workers.

From a short video clip the writer was able to view this morning, it appears that the net and the workers manning it were unable to support the load imposed by the falling operator. The clip suggests he struck the ground, sustaining serious internal injuries. Inasmuch as the video clip has been aired on local West Bengali television stations, we provide a link to that [disturbing] video clip below.