Three painters at a Belfast shipyard had a narrow escape this month, after they were almost hit by a falling crane. The giant 300 ft high Sampson crane, which can lift up to 800 tonnes, appeared to be blown over by the wind at Harland and Wolff. As a result, it only just missed three workers who were painting a nearby crane, which was about 160 ft up in the air. The modern shipbuilding company, who restructured five years ago, currently employ around 500 people and are involved in section building, ship repair, marine design engineering and the assembly of renewable energy hardware such as offshore wind turbines, wave generators and marine current turbines.
A spokesperson for Harland and Wolff said, "It was one of the smaller dockside cranes and part of it has come down. We don't know what caused it, and thankfully nobody was hurt." The company has an exemplary health and safety record stretching back to when they employed thousands of people. No further comments have been made, and the incident is currently being investigated by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSE NI).
