Piper Alpha

monkeytassle said:
Jesus christ. I go to work and press buttons. Still csnt comprehend the day to day for these lads despite my dad doing it. Thinking about it he went out of the way not to tell me about his offshore life.
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Shame to say safety offshore still hit and miss we had 2 big incidents during decom in last 18 month which could of easily killed multiple people only pure luck preventing loss of life it’s a very dangerous line of work
 


ChrisK said:
Shame to say safety offshore still hit and miss we had 2 big incidents during decom in last 18 month which could of easily killed multiple people only pure luck preventing loss of life it’s a very dangerous line of work
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Dad almost lost his arm taking off a blank flange. Hadn't depressurised it. Took the last bolt off and the blank went through the wall.
 
monkeytassle said:
Dad almost lost his arm taking off a blank flange. Hadn't depressurised it. Took the last bolt off and the blank went through the wall.
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Still happens today mate, there is so much paperwork in place now supposedly for safety it’s mental it’s just a dangerous industry, and humans make mistakes it will never change
 
ChrisK said:
Still happens today mate, there is so much paperwork in place now supposedly for safety it’s mental it’s just a dangerous industry, and humans make mistakes it will never change
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Took him for a pint and asked him what his reaction was.

"whoosh ya fucker. Better tell the oim"
 
RIP to the poor souls that perished. It always brings a lump to my throat this one.

A good friend from school lost her dad in this, she was only 14 at the time. And some cousin of my mam's was also killed that night.

I know the winch operator who was on SAR out of Lossie that night. He said the sea was on fire.
 
monkeytassle said:
Dad almost lost his arm taking off a blank flange. Hadn't depressurised it. Took the last bolt off and the blank went through the wall.
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Sounds to me that the procedure didn't include loosening off all of the bolts, leaving the flange still secure, and then loosening off the blank flange by whacking it the bolts keeping everything in place. That has been the common way of doing it since I started in the industry.
But the line should have been proved dead/de pressurised by the production department, and should have been shown proven dead/depressurised on the permit to work - even before the unbolting had started.
ChrisK said:
Still happens today mate, there is so much paperwork in place now supposedly for safety it’s mental it’s just a dangerous industry, and humans make mistakes it will never change
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Still procedures in place, and there is always the right to stop the job if you're not happy.
But there's a lot of gung-ho dilutees that have got into the offshore game in recent years, scared of their jobs, and cut corners.
 
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Butcher's Coat said:
Sounds to me that the procedure didn't include loosening off all of the bolts, leaving the flange still secure, and then loosening off the blank flange by whacking it the bolts keeping everything in place. That has been the common way of doing it since I started in the industry.
But the line should have been proved dead/de pressurised by the production department, and should have been shown proven dead/depressurised on the permit to work - even before the unbolting had started.

Still procedures in place, and there is always the right to stop the job if you're not happy.
But there's a lot of gung-ho dilutees that have got into the offshore game in recent years, scared of their jobs, and cut corners.
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First offshore late 60s Southern Sector .Lot of American supervision with hung ho AttitudeEncouraging lads to cut corners.Unfortunately many British lads who moved up the ladder began to copy them .Big Percentage of workforce Were from Norfolk/Suffolk with Texas accents
 
Hendonbeach said:
First offshore late 60s Southern Sector .Lot of American supervision with hung ho AttitudeEncouraging lads to cut corners.Unfortunately many British lads who moved up the ladder began to copy them .Big Percentage of workforce Were from Norfolk/Suffolk with Texas accents
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Aahh, the plastic Yank carrot crunchers. :lol:
Quite a few of them down there in the early days.
 
I was in shetland last year working at dales voe, decommissioning the ninian northern platform. The state of it, it would have likely collapsed itself given another year or two.

Incredible to think the other ninian platforms are still out there.
 

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