1. SAFETY FIRST DAY!
FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE ON MY FIRST DAY LEADS TO STRINGENT SAFETY
MEASURES TO PROTECT AGAINST HUMAN ERROR AND MECHANICAL FAILURE.
SITUATION:
It was my first day on the job as a broadcast engineer for a nonprofit broadcast organization in Ecuador. I was
assigned to assist the operators with the routine cleaning of the HC500; a gargantuan 500,000 watt, 45,000 volt
shortwave transmitter, our largest and most powerful. Things were going well until a flash of blinding light
inches away from my face, accompanied by a loud boom, threatened to ruin my first day… big time.
BARRIERS:
I was temporarily blinded by the flash of light and the loud boom had left my ears ringing. Initially, we could find
no reason for what happened. The transmitter was off, and the systems were designed to short the power when
powered down or a fault occurred.
ACTIONS TAKEN:
We stopped cleaning and started investigating. We found that the capacitor that had caused the flash had an
electro-mechanical fail-safe system, but the bar had not dropped correctly to short out the energy, causing a
potentially deadly scenario. To combat the problem, we checked, tested, and replaced every capacitor that
appeared similar to the failed unit. We also adopted a two-person safety system where an engineer would go in
and check everything was powered down while another observed. For months afterward, I would go in as the
second pass and do it all over again.
RESULTS:
By instituting a doubly redundant safety grounding procedure to circumvent assumptions, we produced a highly
safety-conscious environment that resulted in very few incidents at the plant. Over the years, even when
equipment safety failure could have hurt us, our procedures were thorough, sound, and prevented injury. This
success was mainly due to my experience of nearly being transmitter toast on my first day!
SKILLS USED:
➤ Needs Assessment ➤ Problem Analysis ➤ Failure Analysis ➤ Troubleshooting ➤ Safety Procedure Analysis
➤ Testing & Implementation ➤