Well HSE warn that arresting a fall could be enough to overturn a MEWP.
Look at the forces involved.
A boom type MEWP is not a crane, it is designed to take passive and static loads, not dynamic loads which are rapidly changing, the acceleration and jerk on the boom would be massive.
The anchor point if used for fall arrest, MUST be tested to the requirements of BS EN 795, you’ll be lucky to find a boom manufacturer that will certify their boom PPE attachment points to that.
If you have a fully loaded boom, out at full stretch, and a guy falls out, using fall arrest gear, then yes, there is a very good chance you will turn the boom over, especially when you look at the allowable lateral forces on the basket combined with the static load.
The dynamics are horrendous.
The forces have the potential to be quite large.
OK, the arrest is supposed, to reduce the jerk on the body, but, you will have the sideways non-design force, the pendulum effect on the basket of the suspended casualty, all of which are non-design loads on the MEWP.
So, yes I am still saying that there is a chance of overturning a boom using fall arrest equipment.
Hence why ONLY fall restraint equipment should be used, to prevent the person being ejected from the basket in the first place. That way the forces are limited, the body can only accelerate from a standstill to a very limited velocity when restrained in the basket, thus the applied forces are reduced, and tend to be in the plane of basket movement, i.e. within the envelope of design forces considered for the platform.
Now if you do use fall restraint and you lose a body overboard and the “overweight” alarm triggers, or the tilt alarm, can this be reset from the ground, or basket?
Then you are into a rescue, noting that you are not allowed to rely on the emergency services.
If you had used the right kit, i.e. fall prevention, i.e restraint, not arrest, then you would never get into that scenario.