There was an accident in a climbing gym in Finland, where a "Onbelay" autobelay device had a mechanical failure and dropped the climber - in this case luckily from a height of only about one meter so the climber did not suffer any serious injury. The device was about 10 years old and failed because its main mechanism had broken without anyone noticing and the backup then over time worn out, too. The gym in question is quite reputable and I'm sure has done proper maintenance over the years so any gym owner with similar devices should make sure to be in contact with the manufacturer, in case they haven't been contacted already.
Link: https://safetyeng.eu/Home/News
Link text quoted below:
Incident in Salmisaari, Finland Final Report
Following the event on the 21st January in Salmisaari Climbing Arena in Helsinki, when the fall of a climber was not completely prevented by the Onbelay device, Safety Engineering has conducted a thorough investigation. Its findings are listed below.
The Onbelay system is double redundant with two independent hydraulic pistons. The first hydraulic piston has stopped working properly enough in an unknown moment of the past, because of a foreign particle jammed in its pressure regulating valve. The second piston continued working. The reason why the second piston eventually broke is that it suffered systematical and unusually increased stress due to the fact it was the only one working, presumably for a long time.
The Onbelay in the Salmisaari Climbing Arena has been in continuous operation for 9,5 years. Following the incident, Safety Engineering has decided to convey additional maintenance on all devices of similar age, or manufactured up until 2012. Furthermore, the manufacturer will retrofit all older devices with the latest type of pressure regulating valves. All devices will be serviced by certified technicians.
Strictly abiding to maintenance procedures is of paramount importance when working with any safety device. Following this case Safety Engineering has decided to impose stricter measures and requirements for maintenance and handling of the devices it manufactures. Therefore, from now on, the Yearly Checks and Maintenance of all Safety Engineering devices will only be performed by its qualified personnel.
Salmisaari Climbing Arena will continue using the Onbelay devices only after the additional maintenance of the older devices has been performed by Safety Engineering. Following this unfortunate occurrence, Safety Engineering and Salmisaari Climbing Arena continue to work harder keeping their focus on providing a safe and enjoyable climbing experience
Incident in Salmisaari, Finland
We were informed that on the 21st January in Salmisaari Climbing Arena in Helsinki there was an incident involving one of the Onbelay devices, a product by Safety Engineering. According to the information we’ve received, the fall of a climber was not completely prevented by the Onbelay device. The update from the facility owner states that the climber suffered no considerable injuries and walked out after the incident.
The device has been in continuous operation for about 10 years since its installation in 2010. Upon receiving the news, Safety Engineering has immediately started internal investigation and sent a crew of engineers on-site.
We are using this case to stress on the fact that the risk of fall when climbing cannot be completely eliminated. Based on our estimation Onbelay devices have made over 192 000 000 safe descents before this occurrence. The incidents that happen due to manual belaying are far more frequent. The only way to save people in cases of any belay failure is to have coverage of the whole safety zone with thick enough safety mats.
We will be issuing an update on the investigation in the following days.
