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00:00It's very difficult to describe
00:24It came through the guts of the rig
00:27and it engulfed us
00:30I just thought I was born and alive
00:34Went over to the side and jumped
00:39Mayday, mayday, mayday
00:44Mayday, mayday, mayday
00:48Reports are coming in of an explosion on board an oil rig platform in the North Sea
00:54Fleets of ambulances and extra doctors and nurses have been standing by all night
01:06Today questions have been asked about the risks that are being run to produce Britain's oil
01:15The oil companies had been able to get away with too much for too long
01:24What was happening around you on the platform?
01:31The platform was just disintegrating
01:34It was pretty horrific
01:39I looked at the corner slightly and it was just a sheet of flames
01:48I went, what rig is Dad on, Mum?
01:54And she went, oh, paper alpha
01:57That's when it hit me
01:59I just screamed
02:00I just screamed
02:01Miss yarn
02:03MissÔes
02:04MissÔes
02:06MissÔes
02:07MissÔes
02:08MissÔes
02:12MissÔes
03:12Your full name, Mark Archibald Reid?
03:16Yes.
03:17How old are you?
03:1925.
03:20I live in Rutherland, Glasgow.
03:24Last year I was employed as lead foreman by Bodden Drone.
03:29I've worked regularly on Piper since 1982, so I'm very familiar with the layout, especially
03:37the drilling section.
03:38My last tour of duty on Piper started on Wednesday, 6th of July itself.
03:49I was to be working the day shift, which was 11.30 in the morning until 11.30 at night.
03:57My dad in his mid-20s is probably someone you would want to be friends with.
04:10If you needed someone to be the silly person or the life and soul of your party, my dad
04:16could be that person for you.
04:17The thing that I remember was his sense of adventure.
04:24We once went on a car journey around the north of Scotland.
04:29I was young enough that I knew that this was quite an exotic adventure.
04:32His parents didn't have that same ability to even dream of those adventures.
04:38They came from quite a working class upbringing.
04:42Anything that was removed from that looked not like a step, but a leap.
04:47And so I think for my dad being able to work on an oil rig like Piper Alpha, it was still
04:53a real opportunity that couldn't be missed.
05:02Is your full name Andrew Hamill Mocken?
05:10That's right.
05:11How old are you?
05:13I'm 48 and I live in Glasgow.
05:16In July of last year, were you employed as a superintendent engineer?
05:21That's right.
05:23I've been working offshore now for 10 years.
05:26My last tour of duty on Piper Alpha began on Wednesday, 6th of July itself.
05:38My dad was always a very upbeat person.
05:43Fantastic sense of humour.
05:46Amazing storyteller.
05:48Well liked and well respected by everyone that he knew.
05:52He wasn't tall in stature, so he was known universally by everybody's wee Andy.
05:58He's just a traditional west of Scotland working man, working class.
06:03Celtic, the bookies and working hard, providing for his family.
06:08That's the type of man he was.
06:14Growing up, my dad worked in the car factory at Linwood, which was Roots.
06:20He worked alongside lots of other people that we grew up with.
06:32Our neighbour next door worked in the car factory.
06:35A lot of the people in our street.
06:37It was like the biggest employer.
06:40So when that closed down, it had massive repercussions for the area.
06:43There was definitely a sense of what happens next.
06:54Where do we find a job?
06:56It's widely documented what was happening in Scotland.
06:59You know, we can go through the whole of the Proclaimers song.
07:02Linwood, no more.
07:05Traditional industries, steel, coal, car manufacturing, all gone.
07:10For my father, that transferred itself into him going to work in Aberdeen and the Rigs.
07:19My dad wasn't chasing the big bucks.
07:21My dad was chasing a job.
07:23My dad was chasing employment to provide for his family.
07:31Liquid gold.
07:33Call it what you like.
07:34Britain now has oil.
07:36Billions and billions of barrels of it.
07:38There's no doubt that North Sea oil is the biggest piece of luck that's come our way in a very long time.
07:47We've struck it rich.
07:48So rich that it could alter the economic outlook of Britain.
07:51Well, things look great.
07:54You're gonna have the whole world on a plate.
07:57Many of our problems would be over and we could begin to pay back some of our huge foreign debt.
08:01Suddenly, in the 70s, there was this incredible optimism.
08:12Energy Secretary Tony Benn went to greet the very first trickle of oil from the North Sea.
08:17The government regarded the oil industry as the biggest boom they could possibly have.
08:22They obviously were getting taxed.
08:26They needed the money at that time.
08:29It was very clear from the start that Aberdeen was going to be the centre of it.
08:35It was a very big change.
08:39Almost immediately, we saw an influx of oil men from the States and Fartherfield coming in.
08:46There was a more cosmopolitan air about Aberdeen, for sure.
08:50You weren't really anyone unless you had a gold Amex card.
08:54House prices went up.
08:56Restaurant prices went up.
08:57You would see the occasional sticks on a hat in Union Street.
09:00The adventure looked as if it was going to go on forever.
09:13This witness is Mr Conrad Watge of Occidental Petroleum.
09:19Although Piper was not the first platform in the North Sea,
09:23it was one of the first in what we refer to as the Central North Sea.
09:26It was towed out and set into position in June 1975,
09:34approximately 110 miles northeast of Aberdeen.
09:38We're in 470 feet water depth.
09:42The oil reservoir is below the seabed.
09:45And by terms of reservoir, what we really mean is rock with pores in it,
09:50where there's oil stored.
09:51Piper Alpha started producing in 1976, and she produced oil and gas.
09:59This is the equivalent of the local bus station.
10:02The men who work in the iron villages of Piper and Claymore are setting off for wind.
10:09You fly in, and there's the helipad.
10:12That is the top of an oil platform.
10:16Underneath that, there are production modules.
10:20There's drilling.
10:22There's the control room.
10:24There are accommodation blocks.
10:27It's really like a city on stilts in the North Sea.
10:33The field was long regarded as the most profitable in the North Sea.
10:39The Piper platform is owned by the American company Occidental Oil.
10:45One remarkable businessman has managed to remain equally welcome at the White House and the Kremlin.
10:51He's Dr. Armand Hammer, chairman of Occidental Petroleum.
10:55He's been a statesman, an envoy, an industrialist.
10:58Probably the most influential private citizen in the world.
11:01Ready? I declare this terminal open.
11:05Armand Hammer was a very close friend of Margaret Thatcher's.
11:10The two of them thought very highly of each other.
11:12Dr. Hammer plans to invest in Britain's future by investing a further one and a half billion, billion, got the billion?
11:23Yes.
11:23Dollars.
11:23Right.
11:26Oil still absorbs much of Hammer's time.
11:28The North Sea has been a fruitful hunting ground for him.
11:35Is your full name Geoffrey Bollins?
11:39Yes.
11:41I am 40.
11:43I'm from Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough.
11:45On the night of the 6th of July, you were the control room operator.
11:48Is that right?
11:50Yes.
11:51It was quite a routine day.
11:54It was quite a routine day.
11:54We hang out.
12:20in july of last year were you employed as an electrician that's correct i was working
12:43offshore since 1977 and regularly on piper since april 1987 on wednesday the 6th of july did you
12:53finish work and eventually go to the television room i finished work at nine o'clock in the evening
13:03showered changed i made a phone call
13:07then i went to the television room i remember the video quite vividly or the title of it
13:16it was called whistleblower
13:19when bob phoned me from the rig that was always a reassurance call
13:29and so that i would know he was fine because i did worry i tried not to but i did
13:37he hated working offshore he hated that trapped feeling of being stuck in this one place
13:43so you can't go anywhere you can't go for a walk you're stuck there for two weeks
13:49financially it was really useful and he knew that he would not be able to earn as much if he wasn't
13:57working offshore he'd really not had much of an education and he decided that he wanted to study
14:05and really learn he started with the open university he was doing the enlightenment so he was studying
14:12which meant that he could pass his time a lot better offshore i think one thing that never changed
14:19with bob was his sense of humor i think i laughed all the time mostly um he was also very romantic
14:26i remember one time he came back from the rig and he it was easter time and he'd got the chef to
14:32make me an easter egg with a bottle of perfume inside it he was always doing little things like that
14:38i think i was 18. so was that when you were first dating? roundabout aye that's at tiffany's that's when i first met him
14:58so was that like a nightclub? yeah it was it was a disco
15:01used to happy times eh i was dancing with his mate your dad looked at me and winked at me that's how we met
15:08he was just a fun loving guy a happy go guy yeah he was a good dad he loved his
15:15yeah we were used to going away and coming back and been working offshore and then coming back
15:22we were used to that pattern weren't we it was a way of life for you at that age you know your daddy's
15:28going to work and he was coming home that's him going to work obviously try to spend as much time
15:33with us as possible yeah
15:35we quickly found our rhythm with my dad being away two weeks we were like excited like christmas when he came
15:46home because on the rigs at that point you could get duty free perfume duty free fags duty free chocolate
15:54and you always knew whose dads worked in the rigs because that was part of your playpiece bringing out your
15:59fancy em chocolate and we always smelt the the nicest like we were i was cutting about wearing nina rishi
16:07in an ana when i was 12.
16:19do i understand that on the 6th of july you had some slight problem in that two of your men had
16:25gone off sick that's right would you explain that for us i discovered about half past nine that night
16:33two persons had been laid off sick by the rig medic and i hadn't been informed about it
16:40one of them the medic said was suffering from infected gas inhalation
16:47i mean i wasn't happy and i asked him where would he get that
16:54he said he would be back in touch with me later on
16:57believe it or not it's less than two months before the start of the summer olympics in soul
17:03sara maria
17:07i got a phone call from frank and of course the girls were over the road playing at their friend's house
17:12i said i can run over and get them if you hold on
17:15no no he says it's fine fiona he says i'll phone later on tonight and i'll speak to them
17:20i thought okay
17:21i could hear in his voice something wasn't right
17:24and i says to him are you okay he says yeah he says it's just enough smell of gas i went right
17:32but he says it's okay don't worry he says i love you i'll phone you later i went right okay
17:37i had been concerned about a lot of things in the platform itself
17:47it had a high number of recorded defects and a large number of repairs that have been undertaken over
17:52the years your diving team would be the people who would know the state of the platform under the surface
17:58yes people felt that it was in very poor condition
18:02i had found piper an uncomfortable place to be
18:06i mean i had never previously experienced a rig that shook so much as piper
18:12i suppose there was a sense that when you got a job offshore you had won the golden ticket
18:21but it was a very unforgiving job
18:25there'd been a culture of fear of people being afraid to discuss safety concerns
18:35the men were not supposed to be able to revolt against their conditions
18:42when they started to this expression came in nr bead
18:48and i remember that in my teens and saying what does nr b mean dad
18:53not required back
18:55literally and effectively blacklisted
18:58sometime in the evening i think around quarter to ten i went to the bodden tea shop for a break and a cup of tea
19:11and there was this high-pitched irregular sound that was deafening
19:15and obviously gave you the impression that what you're sitting on top of was a massive chemical plant
19:21so it was always in the back of your mind that something could go wrong
19:27someone said to me
19:34that does not sound very healthy
19:37ironically enough i said
19:40one of these days this place is going to blow up
19:44the first thing that happened out of the usual was that the b condensate pump tripped
20:00they were two pumps the operating pump and the spare pump
20:11normally one had only one of the condensate injection pumps working at any one time
20:17the lead operator came into the room
20:23he said to me that he couldn't get the pump restarted
20:28and he said that he wanted to get the air pump reinstated
20:33he got on the PA system to alex clark
20:38the maintenance lead hunt
20:40was your name called on the tannoy
20:44yes it was
20:46i came away down to the control room
20:49i ran
20:50we could not get there quick enough and get things under control
20:54quick enough
20:54we would shut down completely
20:56it was critical that you got the system back on as quickly as you possibly could
21:00to prevent losing power to the rest of the plant
21:03then we started getting problems with the gas panel
21:08i was not happy about the situation but i knew the situation was being looked after
21:14obviously seen this quite a few times
21:17under plenty of men who knew what they were doing
21:20and they would have been taking appropriate action
21:22then i started to get some gas alarms going off
21:28the alarms came in very quickly at this point
21:33you're talking about seconds
21:36the gas alarm came up
21:41i turned to go out the control room
21:45and there was an explosion
21:49i got the girls in
22:00i thought your daddy still hasn't phoned yet
22:02maybe he can't get to the phone
22:03or maybe it's busy
22:05because i couldn't phone him
22:06i had to wait on him phoning me
22:09and
22:11we just went to bed that night
22:19in july 1988
22:21i was a three-month-old baby
22:24family life for us in glasgow was about as manic as you might expect
22:29and it's wild to think about that
22:32now that i was just such a fresh baby then
22:36and that there were a million other things that both my parents would have been thinking about then
22:41when the disaster happened and changed everything
22:45the explosion hit me from the right hand side and threw me 15 foot across the space
23:01if i lost consciousness it was only for a second or two
23:05i got my thumb cut and i got a blow to my hip bone
23:09which is very painful
23:11i sort of went underneath the smoke as it was swirling over the top of us
23:16i pressed the emergency shutdown button
23:19my very first knowledge was
23:30the pain of having the ceiling
23:33hit my head
23:34i was in the dive module
23:37and
23:39the only lights that were on were some form of emergency lighting
23:42in the corridor
23:43and there was such chaos
23:47in the offices
23:48the first thing that struck me was that
23:56this was not minor
23:58you know
23:59so i immediately headed for my muster point
24:04i made the whole tea shack jump
24:12the coffee machine came flying off the table
24:16it was on top of
24:17it was probably similar to an earthquake if you like
24:20it was just this tremendous loud bang
24:25i was standing
24:29when the explosion occurred
24:32it lifted the whole platform
24:35and shook it
24:36staggered the bit
24:39we didn't realize exactly what had happened
24:42mayday mayday mayday mayday mayday
24:53mayday mayday
24:54this is the
24:56load of cavalier
24:57alongside hyper alpha platform
24:59alongside hyper alpha platform
25:01there is an explosion
25:04on board
25:05is your full name
25:11alistair duncan mackenzie letty
25:15that's correct
25:16you are the offshore installation manager of the tharos vessel
25:20that's correct
25:29the tharos
25:31the world's biggest multi-purpose safety vessel
25:35a colossus with an answer to every kind of emergency
25:40the water cannons on the tharos can envelop a burning rig
25:5240 000 gallons a minute
25:54hold over a hundred yards
25:57the tharos is probably the most effective certainly the most expensive fire engine ever built
26:03i was awakened by a loud noise and i opened my curtains and looked out towards the platform
26:12i got dressed as quickly as possible
26:14am i right in thinking that the position of the tharos was 550 meters from the platform
26:20as quickly as possible
26:21yes
26:22we started to move there as fast as we possibly could
26:26i intended to get all our emergency equipment ready as quickly as possible and the tharos has
26:31considerable firefighting capability and power water cannon
26:34the intention was to get the gangway out and also to get the fire monitors running
26:43you could have extended the gangway and landed it on the railings of piper alpha in order to evacuate people
26:50it could be used if there was a place to land the gangway
26:54that was the intention yes
26:56i was asked by the heli deck whether they could launch the helicopter
27:00and i said yes
27:03it was fairly normal practice to get the helicopter prepared
27:07with a view to evacuating men from the platform
27:11the primary muster area was at the lifeboat stations
27:14then if you could not get to your own lifeboat
27:17you were meant to come and muster in the dining room
27:20to be taken off by helicopter
27:23i was in a certain position of coordinating
27:30if for some reason people couldn't get to the lifeboats
27:33or if there was damage to certain lifeboats or certain areas
27:37then with my radio and liaison with the occidental people
27:41we would redirect people from the command post
27:44we quickly formed ourselves into
27:49for want of a better word an escape party
27:54the first time we went up to the muster area
27:57once we got there
27:58there was tremendous confusion
28:01but leaving from the dining room area
28:03was occidental's evacuation plan
28:06by that time i would say
28:09about a hundred people had gathered there quite quickly
28:12if there were to be a chance that they could play
28:16have more information
28:19and one of the things that had left
28:20for the night
28:21that when we met
28:22was a detour
28:23we wanted to be safe
28:24and we got more information
28:25for some reason
28:26we got something
28:28we didn't have a need
28:29to be able to find out
28:30we got anything
28:31we can't wait
28:32they knew
28:33we didn't have an explosion
28:34but we got an exposure
28:36we got an explosion
28:38we got an explosion
28:39on fire
28:41I was trying to follow the instructions which had been very clearly put in my mind previously
28:53that you should ascend to either the heavy deck galley, the dining room to muster, or to your
28:59lifeboat. And so I was constantly thinking and looking for a way up. But what I do recall
29:08specifically was a number of people coming down the stairwell. They made it abundantly clear
29:14that they felt there was no way up.
29:18Someone opened the door and there was just this black smoke. It came belching and blowing.
29:29We could not go out that front door. The intense smoke, it was just bellowing.
29:36You couldn't possibly see where you were going.
29:41In the corner, I had seen a massive amount of smoke just billowing out from underneath the
29:53cellar deck area. But it was clear that there was no access unless I wanted to venture into
29:58very thick smoke. And so I wanted to see if there was any way that I could get to the safe
30:03end. It was either then or on the way back from it, I noticed in the center of the platform
30:10a fire.
30:14It was a fire that appeared to be burning oil.
30:16From where you emerged from the control room, could you see signs of fire when you came out?
30:38Yes.
30:39I wonder if you would like five minutes or so, Mr. Pollons.
30:51Dad was always outgoing, but also, you know, you know, time for us and mum.
30:57You know, we were, we were, we were, and we still are a close, close family.
31:08That night, mum and I and Hannah and Paul were at home.
31:11I suppose typical teenager, prancing around, you know, procrastinating, not wanting to go
31:16to bed, doing a little bit of study.
31:19And at 15 years old, the other things that were important, like, what are you going to
31:24wear the next day for school?
31:26And does my hair look right?
31:28And those things that really, at the tower, feel important, but actually aren't.
31:36Going to bed on the 6th of July and not knowing that the next day would change your life forever
31:44is something that people say, could you wind the, if you could wind the clock back, would you?
31:54And yeah, I would.
31:55Absolutely.
31:56And not just for dad, for everybody.
32:03Do you feel able to continue, Mr. Pollons?
32:07Um, yes, sir.
32:09We had got to the point where you were out of the control room, and I was asking you
32:14about signs of fire on the platform.
32:18There was obviously fire coming out of the B module.
32:23The wind was blowing the flames around the crane pedestal.
32:27The smoke outside was jet black.
32:30It was night and day.
32:32We started getting showered with odd sparks of things dropping down on us where we were
32:37stood.
32:39And my lifeboat muster station was from about a year to that desk over there, just about
32:46maybe 20 yards.
32:51And the smoke outside was like a black wall coming across us.
32:58We decided to go back to our cabin and get on a survival suit and a life jacket.
33:04We ran the towels under the water, wrapped them around our faces.
33:12What extra towels we had, we dished out to other people.
33:15Well, I still didn't realize how dangerous the situation was.
33:20I had time to get my glasses, and I was reading Voltaire's Condide.
33:25I took Condide with me, because I thought if I'm rescued, I'd need something to read that night.
33:34We intended to return to the dining room.
33:39Men just seemed to be drifting towards the dining room.
33:42I mean, it was already filling up with smoke, and there was no other alternative options, all the other options had been closed.
33:49It was a matter of following everyone in there, I mean, that was a muster point.
33:53Did you ever hear any instructions sound over the turn-away?
34:04No.
34:05Did you ever hear any alarms?
34:11No.
34:12Was there a sprinkler system for the accommodation area, to your knowledge?
34:18Yeah, there was a sprinkler system.
34:21Did it come on at all?
34:25No.
34:29We had no fire pumps.
34:32I mean, we had no water.
34:37The object of launching the helicopter was with a view to traveling to Piper Alpha, and evacuating men from the platform.
34:45That's correct.
34:46I think that several logs were, in fact, kept as best could be done in the course of that night.
34:52Am I correct?
34:54Yes, they were.
34:57The next entry is recorded as,
35:01helicopter reports dense smoke over platform helideck,
35:08and unable to land.
35:10July the 6th.
35:23We'd taken a walk along Bournemouth Beach and just went to bed as normal.
35:28I had no idea where my dad was, because I was down here working and had lost complete sense of his two-week-on, two-week-off pattern.
35:37I didn't know whether he would have been on a rig or not on a rig, and what rig he would have been on, if any.
35:43Because Bob was doing an open university course, there was all those materials of different components of the course would arrive in the post.
35:57And on the evening of the 6th of July, I remember some LPs, long-playing records, arrived of the opera The Marriage of Figaro,
36:09which it was the music component of the course he had to study.
36:12So I thought, right, I can put these onto cassette for him and send them offshore so that Bob could actually listen to it on a walk, man.
36:22I was quite keen to make sure that he wasn't going to be held up, that Essie would be in on time and all the rest of it.
36:27We intended to go back up to the dining room.
36:45We tried to get up a stairwell, but it was rather crowded.
36:47And also we could hear people shouting in the confusion about who had been afraid.
36:58I heard one of the chaps say that if you lie on the floor or sit on the floor, it's easier to breathe.
37:06Tommy Hayes and Neil McLeod volunteered to put on their breathing apparatus and go outside to try and find a safe means of escape.
37:26They were gone about ten minutes.
37:30And their summary of the situation was it was pretty desperate.
37:36They couldn't find any way out of the accommodation block.
37:45I saw the offshore installations manager.
37:49He was standing probably in the centre of the dining room on a dining table.
37:54I suppose he was trying to assume some sort of command.
37:58But it was practically impossible because of all the panic and the command.
38:06The emotion and the heckling.
38:08He was trying to calm things down to the best of his ability.
38:12And I told him that he was in charge.
38:15And I told him he had to get us out.
38:17And he told me to calm down.
38:21He said there were four guys outside.
38:23He said they were going to find an exit for us.
38:25And I shouted to him to get some kind of communication.
38:30And he spoke into the radio four times.
38:34And he never got an answer.
38:35Some of the chaps had some presence about them.
38:46And they were feeling the bars on the doors to see how hot they were.
38:50Obviously, if they were terribly hot, then we knew there was a fire outside.
38:56And so we didn't venture.
38:58Some of the guys were trying to break the windows open to get some fresh air.
39:06You heard the windows started cracking with the heat.
39:10And that's when the flames appeared.
39:12We heard one of the chaps from the lower deck say that the air was fresher down there.
39:19So we went down to the lower deck.
39:22We got down to the B level and found our way out onto the pipe deck.
39:27I think there must have been about 20 of us at that time.
39:39It was quite a number.
39:43That was pretty horrific.
39:46There was quite dense black smoke about the place.
39:50I think the best way to describe it, possibly, is that it was like being in a surrealist painting or dream.
40:05It was unreal, what was happening.
40:20I remember distinctly.
40:50Seeing people that I'd been working with constantly for weeks.
40:54And I think one of them asked me if there was any way up.
40:57I explained that there very clearly was not any way up and that there was no point in trying.
41:01I spotted somebody coming up from the navigation area.
41:05And as it was very clear we were low on options, I decided to go and have a look for myself.
41:11I was very shocked to what I saw.
41:14The entire dive skip was ablaze.
41:16I was struck by the sight of what appeared to be quite large items falling into the sea from that area.
41:25I remember a couple of the items appeared to be the size of cars.
41:28We moved to go down to the 68 foot level.
41:36There was nowhere else to go.
41:37All of the routes had been blocked off.
41:39There was a rope leading from the 68 foot level down.
41:46When I got onto the rope it dropped.
41:49Only about ten feet.
41:51But of course to drop any distance on a rope is quite an unpleasant experience.
41:56I was part of the group that went down the knotted rope.
42:05I had a great difficulty.
42:08Couldn't fasten my life jacket properly because of my thumb.
42:12So I just tied a knot in it and the knot kept snagging on the rope on the way down.
42:18I turned around to the Zed boat from the Silver Pit.
42:35And I waved and pointed.
42:39And they gave me a thumbs up.
42:40And I remember thinking at the time it was like hailing a taxi.
42:48I mean it was extraordinary.
42:51I was the first into the Zed boat.
42:54And the last out of it when we got to the Silver Pit.
43:10As I was being taken over to the Silver Pit there was another major explosion.
43:29I don't know where it originated from.
43:32It was just that big.
43:38Totally, totally engulfed the platform.
43:40The next entry relates to a radio message which had been picked up by your first mate from Piper Alpha.
43:57Yes, it was people, majority, in galley area.
44:03Theros scum, gangway hoses, looking bad.
44:10In 1988 I was commissioned to make a television series about the work of the RAF Search and Rescue Squadron based in Scotland.
44:22On the 6th of July we got our meal ordered and I sat down, I think I was in the middle of a prong cocktail, and the bleeper went off again.
44:35Fire on an oil platform in the North Sea.
44:38We drove back to the flight and we took off.
44:56In the evening I had a friend round for a cup of coffee and my phone rang.
45:07And this was a contact who said, something appears to be happening offshore.
45:13I don't know what it is yet.
45:14So I took the call and said, thank you very much.
45:18Shortly after I got that call, I got another call from another contact who said, they've reopened Aberdeen Airport.
45:26Now in those days, Aberdeen Airport closed, I think it was half past nine, quarter to ten.
45:32No exceptions.
45:34So I knew, whatever it was, it must be huge.
45:37And we took off at about 10.25, approximately 120 miles, so you're looking at about 50 minutes to get there an hour.
45:49This is Rescue 01, airborne from Ken Loss.
45:52An Inroad RAF reconnaissance aircraft came on.
45:57So 01, we're airborne to Piper Alpha.
46:01We're just coasting out over Lossy Mouth.
46:04We'd taken off, he was just flying above.
46:06We're still in transit to the area.
46:08We can actually see that their rig is on fire.
46:11Stand by.
46:13Everybody in the helicopters said, did you hear that?
46:17Did they say he can see it?
46:18It's 120 miles away and he can see it.
46:21And he could.
46:22Within 10 minutes, we began to see the skyline changing to orange.
46:30Everybody in the Aberdeen newsroom had sort of gathered.
46:33And from then on, it was a question of hitting the phones.
46:36Really, really hard.
46:38One of us would do the Coast Guard and the RAF.
46:40The other would do the oil companies, the police and the hospital.
46:44Somebody said, it looks like it's Occidental's Piper Alpha platform.
46:49Eric came off the phone and said, no, no.
46:52Occidental say it's nothing to do with Piper Alpha.
46:54There is a small explosion on a nearby drilling rig.
46:57And I remember hearing that because I had been told by the RAF and by the Coast Guard
47:05that Piper Alpha was burning from the sea level to the top of the platform.
47:10I knew we could not let the story hang there with no reporting of it.
47:15I just knew we had to get it on air.
47:17Is your name Ian Fowler?
47:30Aye.
47:33I'm 30 years old and I'm a joiner for you, Aberdeen.
47:38How were things in the dining room at this point?
47:41Quite a few people started to panic.
47:44They were screaming for someone to make a decision.
47:46It's fairly obvious there was not much a decision to be made.
47:50I had to get out of there.
47:50But can I take it that others decided to stay?
47:56One can only assume so.
47:59I just did not know what to do, I think.
48:06I lost total control of myself.
48:09Just running around like a chicken with its head chopped off.
48:17I shouted, is there anyone here from Bodden Drillen?
48:20Because I thought I was going to die
48:25and I just wanted to be with someone that I knew.
48:34Jeff Jones, he shouted my name.
48:37He said, I'm over here.
48:39And he shone a torch and he said, we need to get out of here.
48:47So I held onto his waist.
48:49He said, he had the torch.
48:53And they were saying that it was impossible to go outside
48:56because we would get burned.
48:59But I said to him, men were dropping dead in the dining room.
49:05So there's no point in staying there.
49:08At some point was a suggestion made that you might douse one of the doors with water
49:28to see if that assisted in allowing you to get out.
49:31There's a hose reel immediately next to the emergency door.
49:37We tried that and there was no water.
49:39I can't remember exactly how the doors were opened.
49:48But I remember looking out and seeing the blue sky.
49:54And that was what sort of recharged my batteries.
49:58You know, it made me think I could get out, get some fresh air.
50:00It did clear slightly and I went out.
50:07There's a small food container in the area just outside the south doors.
50:12Maybe half a dozen people there.
50:14Whoever was in there just advised us to stay put so we could catch our breath.
50:24Tomatoes were getting passed around.
50:29I took three or four and squashed them over my head and my face
50:33and all the surface areas that were exposed.
50:37Later on, I ate the remainder of them because I was bitterly parched.
50:50We could see people on the roof of the additional accommodation.
50:54So we thought we'd make for there.
50:57We thought if we could see them, there must be less smoke there.
51:01I could see all the way down to the northwest corner of the platform.
51:07Someone was lying there.
51:12Obviously dead.
51:17He's close.
51:19They'd been blown right off him.
51:20Did you try and attract the attention of the people on the Tharos?
51:39Yes.
51:41We got the attention of some of them.
51:44We waved at them and they waved by.
51:46The Tharos has a capability of extending a gangway, as we mentioned before,
51:51in order to evacuate people.
51:54Yes.
51:56We intended to deploy the gangway to form a bridge
51:59between the platform and the Tharos.
52:02But the landing platform was covered in fire and smoke at all times.
52:06We were in close enough to deploy the gangway.
52:08At some point this water just started cascading down.
52:22I don't know whether it was from the Tharos or some other support vessel,
52:28but I remember that I was grateful for it.
52:35It actually made little puddles on the floor
52:40and I actually started to lick from the puddles like a dog
52:45just to get my bodily fluids back up.
52:47I think by that time, the Tharos was spraying water on us
53:00because I was getting cooled down.
53:04Our party had diminished somewhat.
53:06There was about 12 of us, I think.
53:10We went down a stair.
53:15I think I was second last or last going down.
53:20The lads went down to the west side
53:23and I don't know why I didn't follow them,
53:27but there was two of us
53:29and for some reason we decided to go down the east side.
53:34I don't know if there was something blocking the passageway
53:43or if I was too frightened.
53:48Did you see them again after that?
53:55No.
54:04On the 6th of July,
54:19I was recording The Marriage of Figaro.
54:23That took me the whole evening.
54:27I got quite involved in that.
54:29I really enjoyed it.
54:30I hadn't really been interested in opera until that point.
54:34There were certain songs
54:37I found myself singing along with
54:39and I did not give a thought to the Piper Alpha
54:44and for the first time ever,
54:47I did not listen to the Late Night Bulletin.
54:50I completely forgot all about it.
54:57On the night of the 6th of July,
54:59I was 14 weeks old,
55:01so my mother would have been having
55:03a sleepless night anyway,
55:05being unaware of what was happening elsewhere.
55:07It was very difficult to describe.
55:14It was very difficult to describe.
55:31He'd ever watched
55:35atom bombs going off.
55:38It was like a
55:39massive, massive mushrooming effect.
55:47He came from the guts of the rig
55:48and it engulfed us.
55:54Everybody just hit the deck.
55:55I felt the heat.
55:57I could feel the hair in the back of my hands
56:01burning.
56:04I decided to move.
56:06I started scrambling over people
56:07just to try and get away from it.
56:09The automatic reaction
56:13was obviously just to run away
56:15from the source of the heat
56:17and I just took off
56:20in the opposite direction
56:21from where this explosion had occurred
56:23and I could see
56:24it was going across the roof,
56:27going to the helideck
56:28and I just felt a searing heat
56:31chasing me all the way.
56:36Had you had any training
56:37in relation to jumping
56:39from a height into water?
56:43Yes.
56:45I think they stipulate
56:46that if you jump from any great height,
56:48you're probably in effect
56:49going to break your neck.
56:51I know that in training
56:53I probably jumped off
56:55the equivalent of what was
56:56a ten foot platform
56:58into a swimming pool
57:00which I think is
57:03rather superficial.
57:09A fireball came up
57:11and it hit me in the face
57:14and I just automatically
57:15put my hands up, you know.
57:19It's an automatic reaction.
57:20It's a natural instinct
57:21to protect my face
57:22and the backs of my hands, got it.
57:26At that point,
57:27did you decide
57:28that you had to get off
57:29the helideck?
57:31I never decided anything.
57:35I just thought
57:35I was burning alive.
57:38I never premeditated.
57:40I just went over
57:42the door at the side
57:43and jumped.
57:52When I turn on the telly,
57:54paper alphas blew up.
57:56First, those helicopters
57:57who just landed
57:57are springing off, survivors!
58:00Hope of finding anybody else alive
58:02is gone
58:03and the search is about
58:04to be called off.
58:06Anger went on
58:06to be a very strong emotion.
58:08There was a sense
58:09of this big oil company
58:11that they were
58:11going to get away with it.
58:13Safety was of paramount importance
58:15as long as it did not
58:16interfere with production.
58:20Occidental's approach
58:21to safety management
58:22was replicated
58:24throughout the industry.
58:26Does the responsibility
58:28for safety
58:29on those platforms
58:30ultimately rest at your door?
58:32To be continued...
59:02You
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