An offshore drilling company has pleaded not guilty in connection with a near fatal incident on an oil rig more than three years ago.

The Transocean Barents was operating in the Terra Nova field when the mishap occurred in September of 2019.

Workers were getting the rig ready for some nasty weather when one man became trapped between a railing and part of a crane that weighed about 1,400 kilograms.

There was an immediate work stoppage as the man was treated for serious injuries at the scene and airlifted to hospital in St. John’s.

Three years later, the C-NLOPB charged Transocean Canada Drilling Services was with two counts under offshore safety regulations—specifically, failing to make sure the crane was being operated by the rules, and allowing the crane’s spotter or signaller, to do other things while the crane was moving.

The case has slowly but surely been making its way through the courts, with not guilty pleas entered this morning by a lawyer for Transocean.

With that, five days were set aside for the trial which is now scheduled for late November.