A well service crew was swabbing when the swab assembly reached the top of the well and parted the sand line. The rig manager was manually spooling the last six wraps of the sand line and became entangled in the parted line. The driller reacted, moving the throttle in the wrong direction and energized the line, which cinched on the rig manager’s leg. The rig manager was launched into the raising ram of the service rig and sustained a leg amputation and other serious injuries.
Several sets of flags, 3-2-1, in use and visible on the second swab were no longer visible on the third swab of this horizontal well.
Personnel did not recognize how close the swab assembly was to the surface (at the top of the lubricator) because of sun in their eyes, multitasking and other distractions.
The throttle control configuration on this rig operates in the opposite direction of the typical driller’s draw works controls. During this high stress moment, the driller activated the throttle control in the wrong direction.
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