Plane accidents and process safety

"06/23/1967 Mohawk Airlines
BAC-111-204AF Blossburg, Pennsylvania The airplane crashed after an in-flight fire destroyed the pitch control systems. All 34 people aboard were killed. A malfunctioning nonreturn valve allowed hot engine bleed air to flow back through an open air delivery valve, through the APU and into an acoustic blanket lined section of the fuselage. This caused flexible hoses with hydraulic fluid to ignite and lead to an uncontrollable fire". Beware of check valves!!

"09/06/1971 Pan International
BAC-111 Hasloh, Germany The aircraft collided with a bridge, shearing off both wings, after a double engine failure occurred during takeoff. The water-injection system to cool the engines during takeoff was inadvertently filled with kerosene instead of water".

30 years ago, an operator in the plant I worked filled up antifoam liquid from a drum similar to an oil drum into the hydraulic governor of a large steam turbine. We found out when the governor started misbehaving!!

Source of plane accidents : http://planecrashinfo.com/unusual.htm

Fire in Pharma factory

Reports of a fire incident in a Pharma factory mention that hazardous waste stored for incineration caught fire. Are you safely storing hazardous waste as per the norms? Generally, what I have observed in other factories is that the incinerator area, being far away from the plant, sometimes gets a little less attention than it should be getting. Most of the work is also contracted out.Ensure that the contractor employees are trained in the norms of handling, storing and processing hazardous waste.
Read the article about the fire in these links:
Link 1
Link2

The importance of emergency stopping

How do you ensure that your emergency stop buttons will work when needed? The emergency stop is the last line of defense and a good article by Robin J Craver mentions the following:
"The nature and operation of the machine must be considered.
· Is it safe to have the emergency stop system cut the power to the machine drives and actuators? This may result in the hazard “free falling” leading to a more dangerous situation.
· Should the system actuate a brake or clamp?
· Would stopping the machine in position result in a worsening of an injury?
· Should the system allow the machine to continue on or reverse to a safe position?"
 Read the article in this link.

Process safety and nanotechnology

With nanotechnology, the process safety hazards will change. A whole new nano process safety approach may need to be taken to identify nano hazards. An article mentions the hazards of nano dust. It mentions that "nanomaterial dust could explode due to a spark with only 1/30th the energy needed to ignite sugar dust — the cause of the 2008 Portwentworth, Georgia, explosion that killed 13 people, injured 42 people and destroyed a factory".
Read the article in this link.

Fire in refinery

A fire in a major refinery in the US has been reported. Apparently, the fire was due to a flange leak.See the video of the fire in this link.