Forever synonymous with tragedy

By Ken Banks
North East and Northern Isles reporter, BBC Scotland news website

Certain names have found themselves destined to forever be synonymous with tragedy in Scottish history.

Lockerbie. Dunblane. Each conjures up memories of human loss on a shocking scale.

On 6 July, 1988, there was another unwelcome addition to that infamous list. Piper Alpha.

Just before 2200 BST, a major gas leak was followed by fire and a series of explosions on the North Sea platform.

The heat ruptured a gas pipeline from another platform causing another massive explosion and fireball that engulfed Piper Alpha.

It all took just 22 minutes and left 167 of the workers on board dead.

Many of the 61 who survived had to jump into the sea through darkness, a desperate leap that killed other colleagues.

Rescue crews flying to the Occidental-owned Piper Alpha platform were confronted with the sight of flames that could be seen 100km away.

Flight Lieutenant Steve Hodgson, an RAF rescue pilot based at Lossiemouth in the north of Scotland, was on a Sea King helicopter.

He recalled: “We have excellent training, but I don’t think that any form of training could prepare you for what we were confronted with that night.

“It was dark ahead of us, and then all of a sudden in the distance we could see a huge fire. I would imagine it was something like 50 to 70 miles in front of us. It was a massive set of flames, the heat was intense.

“I actually remember people in the helicopter closing windows as we moved round. We normally fly with the windows open but they were closed because you could feel the heat from a considerable distance away.”

‘Fry or jump’

Flight Sergeant Trevor Parker, who was in an RAF Nimrod, said: “When we arrived it was completely ablaze. The fuel was on the sea and that was on fire as well. There were a lot of people in situations and certainly people jumping off the rig while we were there.

“It wasn’t until afterwards that the magnitude of what had happened became clear.”

The phrase “fry or jump” would be mentioned by some survivors as the sudden desperate dilemma facing the men.

Roy Carey was one who survived after plunging into the sea.

He said of his ordeal in the water: “I was trying to decide which way to die, whether to drown or whether to die by the fire.

“I decided drowning would possibly be a better way to go, and so I pushed myself on the water and went down a wee bit.

“Then it came to mind I had promised my youngest daughter the same type of wedding as I had given my elder daughter and it gave me reason to survive again.

“I got back to the surface.”

He was among those flown to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for treatment to terrible burns, and remains grateful for the medical attention he received.

‘Good friends’

“I did have quite a lot of psychological troubles,” he said.

“Your thoughts return to the Piper. It was a bad experience for anyone obviously. It’s still in your dreams.

“I knew most of the people who perished. They were good friends. You knew their lives, their kids’ names. It was like losing friends and family.

“It was hard to say you had survived, you felt guilty.

“Your mind plays tricks with you at times, you maybe see one of them across the road and you have just got to realise it’s not them.”

Legendary Texan firefighter Red Adair arrived to quell the blazing wells on what remained of Piper Alpha.

And Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was among those to visit the survivors and members of the rescue services.

Twenty years on, Piper Alpha remains the world’s worst offshore disaster.

Jake Molloy, of the OILC/RMT union, said there have been safety improvements in the years since, but that there can never be complacency.

Mr Molloy explained: “There is no doubt that significant improvements in safety have been made across the industry in the 20 years since Piper.

“The industry specific regulations that have been introduced coupled with the installation of improved hardware should prevent another disaster on the scale of Piper Alpha. I say should because we can never say never.

“Regulations must be adhered to and the hardware will only ever be as good as the people charged with looking after it. People are therefore key to ensuring safety standards are maintained and improved upon.”

Oil and Gas UK director of health and safety, Chris Allen, said: “Piper Alpha was a turning point for the UK oil and gas industry, leading to significant changes in the industry’s approach to safety management, regulation and training.

“This included transferring the responsibility for offshore safety to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), encouraging greater workforce involvement and making major changes to the design of offshore platforms.

“Today the offshore industry compares well with many other industries.”

Darren Miller was just six when his father, Alan David Miller, lost his life.

Mr Miller, 26, told the BBC Scotland news website: “Initially I was angry, angry that my dad had been taken, angry that now my life experience set me apart from my friends.

“But, over the years, the anger has subsided, replaced by the tugs of responsibility, of sadness, and of guilt.

“As the eldest of three siblings, I have always felt an overwhelming responsibility to fill the role my dad would have played.

“The sadness is overwhelming at times.

“Hopefully, this 20th anniversary will trigger a renewed focus on oil industry safety, not only in the North Sea but around the world.”

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Story from BBC NEWS

Published: 2008/07/05 23:00:56 GMT

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