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A series of explosions and fires on the Piper Alpha, an oil platform 110 miles off the coast of Scotland that had been converted to natural gas production, results in the deaths of 167 people and the collapse of the platform.
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00:01HyperAlpha, one of the most productive oil platforms in the North Sea.
00:06It's a city anchored in the ocean, supporting more than 200 workers and pumping oil 24 hours a day.
00:13Then, a routine working day ends in disaster.
00:18167 men perish in 1 hour and 30 minutes.
00:22Now, using cutting-edge computer technology, we reveal exactly what went wrong.
00:32Disasters don't just happen. They're caused by a sequence of critical events locked in time.
00:39Unravel the fateful decisions in those final seconds from disaster.
00:49Europe. Scotland. The North Sea.
00:55Wednesday, July the 6th, 1988.
01:00HyperAlpha is stationed 176 km out from the city of Aberdeen, in the middle of the infamously rough North Sea.
01:11It's built to survive winds of up to 185 km per hour, and waves as high as 28.5 meters.
01:23With more than half of it hidden below the waves, the entire structure towers 230 meters above the sea floor.
01:30Two and a half times the height of the Statue of Liberty.
01:34But today, the North Sea is having one of its kinder days.
01:38There are 226 men on board Piper Alpha.
01:42Electrician Bob Ballantine is one of them.
01:44It's one of these absolutely beautiful summers that you get in the North Sea.
01:48It was calm. It was tranquil.
01:54To keep the massive rig running smoothly, the complex machinery requires regular servicing.
02:01It's a never-ending job.
02:057.45 a.m.
02:08Lead production operator Bernard Curtis issues permits for the day's maintenance work.
02:14They strictly enforce the rule that no one can work on the platform without one.
02:19It's just one of many systems in place to ensure safety on the massive rig.
02:25With 226 men living and working so close to such volatile fuel, it's vital.
02:33Piper Alpha has been in service for 12 years.
02:37Its main job is processing oil.
02:39This happens on the production deck.
02:42It's made of four modules.
02:44Module D contains power generation.
02:47Module C and B process oil and gas.
02:51In Module A, oil is piped up from below the sea floor.
02:57Sitting on top of all this is a self-contained city,
03:00with living quarters and entertainments for the small army of workers
03:03for whom Piper Alpha is a home away from home.
03:08It all happens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
03:1512 p.m.
03:19On the production deck, two maintenance workers are removing a safety valve.
03:23It's a routine job authorised that morning.
03:26They're due to finish by the end of the shift at 6 p.m.
03:31For control room operator Jeff Bollins, it's just another regular day.
03:36There was men doing maintenance, the oil wells were flowing oil,
03:41the machines were running, compressing gas.
03:43It was a higher activity.
03:485.10 p.m.
03:51Jeff Bollins begins his final shift in the control room before leaving the rig.
03:54It was a good shift because we were all happy on it.
03:57It was our last shift when we were going home in the morning.
04:00So it was always a good shift in the last one.
04:03Jeff talks to the control room operator he's relieving
04:05to familiarise himself with the day's business.
04:09There's nothing out of the ordinary to report.
04:206 p.m.
04:21The day shift ends.
04:23But on the production deck, work on the safety valve isn't finished.
04:27Replacing it will have to wait until morning.
04:30It's not a problem.
04:31The pump it's connected to is shut down.
04:35There are now 62 men running Piper Alpha on the night shift.
04:40The other 164 are off duty, eating, relaxing or sleeping in their living quarters.
04:529.45 p.m.
04:56Suddenly, an urgent alarm disrupts Jeff Bollins routine shift.
05:01It's an audible sound, which brings you attention to it.
05:05You're okay then, on a visual basis, what's happened and what we call the condensate pump and trip.
05:13Condensate is the oil man's term for LPG, liquefied petroleum gas, a volatile and highly flammable liquid.
05:21The pump compresses it to a pressure of 78 atmospheres.
05:25That's 45 times the pressure in a car tire.
05:30The pump has stopped working.
05:32But Jeff is still unfazed.
05:35I've seen the condensate pump trip that many times.
05:38I couldn't tell you about 20, 30, 100, 200.
05:42And it was something that needed attention and something that wasn't a major problem.
05:46And the quicker it attended to it, the less of a problem it was.
05:52Lead operator Bob Vernon goes down to the pump, nine meters below the control room.
05:57It should be straightforward to restart it.
06:00But tonight, the production crew can't get it going.
06:08Piper Alpha continues to produce liquid condensate.
06:12There's now barely half an hour left before the storage tank fills up and the safety systems shut down the
06:18entire rig.
06:21This could lead to a complete loss of electrical power on the platform.
06:25Although not dangerous, it'll stop the rig producing oil and the crew will go to almost any lengths to avoid
06:31this.
06:31They're feeling the pressure.
06:34Things became more and more of a problem.
06:37So what started off as quite a routine incident and a minor problem was snowballing.
06:44Normally, a second pump would be available.
06:47But tonight, it's out of service for maintenance.
06:51If they can start that one, it should solve the problem.
06:55Vernon quickly checks the work permit and confirms that the scheduled maintenance hasn't yet begun.
07:02So that it can take over from the broken pump, the lead production operator signs this pump back into service.
07:12But then, at 9.55pm, a new problem complicates the situation further.
07:19An alarm sounds, warning Jeff Bollins of a small gas leak on the deck above the pump.
07:27He silences the alarm and informs another member of the crew who's also down by the broken pump.
07:33The situation now escalates rapidly as Bollins receives several more alarms in quick succession, warning of further small gas leaks.
07:41These are followed by something more ominous.
07:44They're just coming in one after the other.
07:46The next thing we know, we're getting high gas alarms, which is very rare, very serious.
07:53It's 10pm.
07:56Captain Michael Clegg is aboard the maintenance ship Lowland Cavalier, stationed just 25 metres from the southwest leg of Piper
08:03Alpha.
08:05Suddenly, he sees an explosion as a flash of blue flame shoots out below the platform.
08:14In the housing block, Bob Ballantyne is carrying a hot drink on his way to his bunk.
08:20This Almaty explosion lifted the platform right off. It seemed to lift it right off the North Sea and just
08:27shake it about like a rag.
08:31By sheer chance, on another nearby vessel, Charles Miller is taking pictures for his son's school project when he hears
08:38the explosion.
08:41As he clicks the shutter, a second explosion rocks the platform.
08:46He catches the first evidence of what will become a major disaster.
08:53There are 226 men stranded on the rig and it's on fire.
09:00On July the 6th, 1988 at 10pm, an explosion shatters the calm of evening on the North Sea oil rig
09:07Piper Alpha.
09:09226 men are working on board.
09:1510pm.
09:16In the control room of Piper Alpha, operator Jeff Bollans thinks he's on a routine shift.
09:22Until the explosion throws him from his desk.
09:25My experience of the explosion was finding myself 15, 20 foot up the other end of the control room.
09:32Lights going out, turbines tripped, everything's down, a lot of smoke.
09:38Immediately, Jeff does what he's trained to do.
09:41He hits the rig emergency shutdown controls and stumbles out of the wrecked control room.
09:48Valves automatically close all the main oil and gas lines.
09:52The huge electricity generators shut down.
09:58But the main alarm panel has been destroyed, so no emergency alarm sound.
10:04An eerie silence descends on the normally noisy platform.
10:19This amateur home movie, shot from a nearby ship, shows Piper Alpha just after the first explosions.
10:27On the blazing platform, Jeff Bollans and 20 of his colleagues are surrounded by flames and smoke.
10:35They're trapped 29 metres above the waves.
10:39They need to think fast.
10:42There was nowhere to go, except downwards.
10:45One of my lads found a rope which she tied to the handrail and we started to calm down the
10:50rope.
10:51They scramble down to a deck just 6 metres above the water and jump into the sea.
10:58A safety boat is always close to the rig and tonight other ships are also nearby, laying undersea pipes.
11:05They all launch small rescue craft to pick up survivors.
11:10Within 5 minutes, Jeff and his colleagues are plucked from the water.
11:14They are some of the lucky ones.
11:1910.20pm.
11:21Piper Alpha is shaken by a second colossal explosion, captured on this video.
11:29A large section of the rig is engulfed by a roaring fireball.
11:36Jeff Bollans sees it all from the rescue boat.
11:40The heat was just intense even though when Rebbe is 100 yards and where the platforms are sort of like
11:45the kind of things you see in the disaster movie.
11:49About 100 men have gathered in the canteen.
11:54It's one of the main emergency meeting points because it's close to the helicopter landing deck.
12:00But they don't know that the heli deck is already engulfed by smoke and flames.
12:05A helicopter rescue is impossible.
12:10Smoke begins to creep in.
12:13The trapped workers now fear for their lives.
12:15Somebody shouted out that they were afraid.
12:20And I heard the boys coming back and say, you're afraid, everybody's afraid.
12:28The evacuation plan calls for them to wait in the canteen for rescue.
12:32But it doesn't come.
12:35As the situation worsens, rigger Jim McDonald decides to make a run for it.
12:40But others trapped with him cling to the belief that help will arrive.
12:46I said, well, I'm going to try and get off myself.
12:48And I said, if he's making it fair enough, I said, I'm going to try it.
12:54Jim's had 12 years experience on Piper Alpha.
12:58He thinks there's an escape route through the laundry room.
13:03I went into the laundry, but when I went into the laundry, I wasn't in the laundry.
13:07I was in somebody's room.
13:09I said, oh, Jesus God.
13:11I just sat in the corner of the corridor in the corner.
13:16Disoriented by the thick smoke, Jim McDonald is lost.
13:20And every moment he sits there, the odds against him grow.
13:3110.30pm.
13:33Dave Lambert and some colleagues also flee the canteen.
13:37Unlike Jim, they find their way out onto the blazing deck.
13:40But they're surrounded by the fires.
13:44The flames are getting closer and closer and closer.
13:47And the only option, we either go back into the platform or go into this little metal hut.
13:53But once they're inside the hut, it hits them.
13:56There's no way out.
13:59I didn't think we had a chance of getting out, to be quite honest.
14:01We were blocked.
14:02With fire, there was no exit.
14:05Basically, we were trapped.
14:12In the living quarters, Jim McDonald comes to the growing realisation that he's one deck higher up than he should
14:19be.
14:20He makes one last effort to find the escape route through the laundry.
14:29I opens the door and I says, please, God, be there. Be there laundry.
14:34And I just opened up and I just touched that.
14:37Oh, the washing machines.
14:40Once outside, he runs across the blazing deck and down to a platform on one leg of the rig.
14:46He jumps 21 metres into the bitter cold North Sea.
14:50So I went in.
14:51When I hooked the water, I went right down.
14:53And it was a great feeling it was.
14:55Very, very quiet.
14:58And very, very still.
15:00And then all of a sudden, I just shot back up.
15:05Jim grabs onto the leg of the rig until a fast rescue craft picks him up.
15:13The tears would run down my nose.
15:15And this young lad, he says, well, you didn't have to cry, mister.
15:17He says, you're safe.
15:19I says, I'm just crying with happiness.
15:21I said, was that happy, you know?
15:27Working under the platform on another rescue boat is Ian Lethem.
15:31These photographs show his crew in action.
15:34They managed to haul six survivors out of the water.
15:38We picked up the last two people and thought, right, we'll take off now.
15:43But as we went to leave, we realized we were entangled amongst debris from the platform.
15:49With the inferno blazing out of control overhead, they battled desperately to clear the debris.
15:5933 meters above them, electrician Bob Ballantyne and a group of colleagues are also escaping down the rig.
16:06But Bob decides he doesn't like this escape route.
16:10I don't know why I changed my mind.
16:12I just said, no, I don't want to go that way.
16:16While his friends climb down the west side of the platform,
16:20Bob begins to climb precariously down the east side.
16:25It's a choice that will save his life.
16:3110.49 PM.
16:34Beneath Bob on the water, rescue boat driver Ian Lethem is trying to free his craft from the debris.
16:40The heat is relentless.
16:43It was like being under a giant grill.
16:46I mean, it was so hot.
16:47I can remember saying to my colleagues, you know, we're going to have to get out of here.
16:51This is getting really bad.
16:54And I think it was about a split second after that, there was just a huge whoosh.
17:00And I woke up in the water.
17:02I came to in the water.
17:0510.50 PM.
17:07Another colossal explosion tears through the platform, scattering debris over 800 meters.
17:13Ships one and a half kilometers away feel the vibrations.
17:18The fireball engulfs Ian Lethem's boat.
17:24Ian never sees the boat, his crew or the six men they picked up again.
17:30He swims to a leg of the blazing platform.
17:33Another survivor is clinging to it.
17:40I would sort of look round one side and the gentleman in question was Bob Ballantyne was on the other
17:44side of the leg.
17:46So Ian came floating down the platform, Wagner pulled him in beside me just for a human company that he
17:53needed someone there with you.
17:57Bob and Ian cling to the structure and the whole platform shakes as the fires devour it.
18:03With every bang that went off, this thing shook.
18:05I mean, this leg was immense.
18:06It was huge.
18:07And we were hanging on to it and it was getting hotter and hotter and hotter.
18:10I mean, it was getting really hot.
18:11My ears were starting to blister.
18:14Bob and Ian leap into the sea.
18:17With the last of their strength, they swim to a nearby ship and the crew haul them out.
18:22They're suffering from burns and exhaustion.
18:28Up on the blazing platform, Dave Lambert is trapped in a steel hut.
18:34But the colossal explosion at 10.50pm rips the end of it and opens up a new escape route.
18:42If that explosion hadn't blown the end off it, I don't think we'd have survived.
18:47There's no other way out.
18:50Dave races out of the hut and onto the blazing platform, 45 metres above sea level.
18:57As he reaches the guardrail, another explosion blows him over the edge and into the sea.
19:06Amazingly, he survives the fall and can see the rescue boats.
19:11But totally exhausted from his ordeal, he can't reach them.
19:15I had no energy left.
19:17And I got to the stage of thinking,
19:19God, don't let me get this far and drown.
19:23But Dave's incredible luck holds out.
19:26At the last moment, a rescue boat spots him and hauls him from the water.
19:31As the last survivors are picked up, Piper Alpha begins to collapse.
19:4011.20pm.
19:42Another violent explosion shakes the platform.
19:46Piper Alpha is now in its death throes.
19:52One of the cranes collapses.
19:55Then the drilling derrick.
19:56The whole platform begins to tilt to the east.
20:01The main living area containing the canteen where the workers gather to be rescued tips to the north and slips
20:08below the waves.
20:09There'll be no rescue.
20:13The rest of the platform follows it into the North Sea.
20:17By 12.45am, the 20,000 ton Piper Alpha platform is gone.
20:25This tiny piece, part of a section called Module A, is all that remains.
20:31There were 226 men on Piper Alpha.
20:36167, including two rescue workers, die.
20:41The tragedy takes everyone by surprise.
20:45North Sea oil is the pride of Britain.
20:48The country earns huge profits from it.
20:50No offshore platform has ever been lost before, anywhere.
20:55Suddenly, oil rig workers worldwide can sense a new threat.
21:03The Piper Alpha disaster takes just one hour and 30 minutes.
21:08Now, by rewinding events and going deep into the investigation, we can discover what truly happened.
21:17What started the catastrophic chain of events?
21:20And how had this massive rig, that had operated reliably for 12 years, become an inferno?
21:29Advanced computer simulation will take us where no camera can go, into the heart of the disaster zone.
21:39When the UK government launches one of its biggest ever inquiries, senior judge Lord Cullen brings in 89 expert advisers
21:47to analyze every second of the disaster.
21:54But the extent of the destruction leaves very little evidence.
21:59Rod Sylvester Evans spent two years working on the investigation.
22:04There was no scene left, apart from part of Module A, which was standing proud from the sea.
22:11The rest of the platform, all the areas of interest, had in fact been lost.
22:18With the wreckage of the rig scattered across the sea floor, 145 meters below the surface, all they have is
22:25eyewitness testimony, plus Charles Miller's vital photographs.
22:29From these scraps of information, they have to solve the entire mystery.
22:35Investigators begin to interview survivors.
22:39Of crucial importance was the evidence of the control room operator, Mr. Bolands.
22:45And he had witnessed a series of gas alarms that had come up just before the first explosion.
22:56One hour, 35 minutes to disaster.
23:02These gas alarms are all from the production deck.
23:07The investigators study the four 15 by 46 meter modules that make up this deck.
23:13They conclude that all of the alarms come from one area.
23:18Module C.
23:20Another clue confirms this.
23:23Captain Michael Clegg on the nearby vessel Lowland Cavalier sees a blue flash coming out from the same area.
23:30These two pieces of evidence are enough to convince the investigators that Module C has to be the starting point
23:37for the disaster.
23:40But the flash of blue flame has to have a fuel source.
23:44What is it?
23:45Piper Alpha produces three highly flammable products.
23:49Natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas or LPG known as condensate, and crude oil.
23:57All three are prime suspects for the start of the disaster.
24:03First, they investigate the platform's main product, crude oil.
24:08It burns in a very distinctive manner.
24:12Professor Dougal Drysdale is an expert in flame behavior.
24:17Once you ignite it, the surface is burning.
24:21The flames have a characteristic appearance in that they will tend to be large and sooty.
24:29But the initial explosion is not a large sooty flame.
24:34It's a blue flash.
24:35So Drysdale concludes it cannot be crude oil.
24:39That leaves natural gas and condensate.
24:43Because it's lighter than air, natural gas rises.
24:47Condensate, on the other hand, is heavier than air.
24:50So it sinks.
24:53Investigators revisit the eyewitness testimony from Captain Clegg
24:57and make their first major breakthrough.
25:01He sees the flash coming out from under Module C.
25:05The fuel source for the blue flash must be heavier than air.
25:09It can only be condensate.
25:14But investigators believe that this explosion was relatively small,
25:18barely the equivalent of one car tank full of petrol.
25:23How does a small explosion in one module escalate into a disaster that wipes out the giant 20,000 tonne
25:31platform?
25:33A series of massive explosions and fires has destroyed the huge oil platform Piper Alpha and killed 167 men.
25:41It's a devastating tragedy with worldwide repercussions for the oil industry.
25:47Using advanced computer graphics based on the official report,
25:51we go deep into the investigation to uncover the chain of events.
25:56Second by second.
26:01Investigators believe that the disaster starts with a small explosion of condensate, or liquefied petroleum gas.
26:09They also pinpoint where the disaster starts, in part of the platform called Module C.
26:17But there shouldn't have been any loose condensate in that module.
26:21Where did it leak from?
26:24To get at the answers, investigators turned their attention to the gas alarms
26:28Jeff Bollins observed in the control room immediately before the explosion.
26:35We were able to determine that, in fact, the only possible way of explaining the pattern of gas alarms
26:44was by a condensate release in the eastern end of the module.
26:51The only condensate at the eastern end of Module C is contained in two safety valves.
26:57But these are safety devices designed to withstand more than twice normal operating pressures.
27:04How could they leak?
27:06Then the investigators make a vital discovery.
27:10One of these valves had been removed for a routine safety check.
27:14Could the open pipe be the source of the mysterious leak?
27:20They dig deeper and discover that in normal safety procedures,
27:24workers insert a flat metal disc to seal the hole where the valve has been removed.
27:29And that prevents any leaks.
27:32If the hole was sealed, condensate could not have come from there.
27:37But they remain convinced that the safety valve is the prime suspect.
27:42To check their theories, they conduct a series of tests on an identical metal disc,
27:47tightening its bolts by varying amounts.
27:49This video from the inquiry shows the actual tests.
27:57The test results show that the sealing disc could leak if workers tighten the bolts without a wrench,
28:03leaving them just finger tight.
28:07If the bolts were done fairly loosely, you would look done up when you looked at it, but there was
28:12a gap.
28:13This is a vital breakthrough.
28:17Investigators now believe that a leak from a loosely fitted metal disc is the starting point for the entire catastrophe.
28:24But there's a problem with this theory.
28:26The valve in question was undergoing maintenance.
28:29There should have been no condensate in that pipe.
28:33Solving this mystery becomes the new focus for the investigators.
28:39Using plans of the rig, they trace the pipe down to a different deck, where it connects to a pump.
28:46But they know this pump was out of service for maintenance.
28:52It should have had no condensate in it.
29:00Then they talked to the night shift workers.
29:04Their evidence reveals that another pump in service that night broke down one hour, 45 minutes before disaster.
29:13The lead operator perished, so they can't question him.
29:18However, the evidence suggests he intended to swap the pump in maintenance for the broken pump to keep production flowing.
29:27But the pump undergoing maintenance was missing its safety valve.
29:32Because the lead operator was seen actually introducing condensate into this pump very shortly before the accident.
29:40There was not only the intent to start it, but there was also the opportunity.
29:45Before starting up a new pump, workers must first fill it with a small amount of condensate.
29:53This happens one hour and 35 minutes before disaster.
29:58But this small amount of condensate leaked.
30:01The loosely fitted sealing disc, secured only hand tight, triggered the first gas alarm Jeff Bollins heard in the control
30:08room.
30:11When the pump was ready to start, the lead operator released more gas into it.
30:16He opened up the valves to introduce more condensate and it was during this period that there was a very
30:22major release.
30:26Up in the control room, this much larger leak triggered multiple gas alarms, including the high-level alarm that Jeff
30:33saw just before the first explosion.
30:39At one hour, 30 minutes to go, the leaked condensate explodes in Module C.
30:52Investigators are zeroing in on the chain of events, but there's a break in the link.
30:57Module C is protected by huge firewalls designed to resist intense flames for up to six hours.
31:04And this first explosion is not very violent.
31:11But photographic evidence reveals a surprise.
31:14Less than 10 seconds after Module C explodes, the picture shows a huge fireball ballooning out of the module next
31:21door, Module B.
31:24How did it break through the firewalls and spread so fast?
31:30The investigators carry out a series of computer simulations and experimental explosions seen here.
31:39The results are surprising.
31:44While the firewalls are excellent at resisting fire, they can't handle explosions.
31:49Even a minor blast can tear them apart.
31:52The firewalls are made up of 2.5 by 1.5 meter fireproof panels bolted together.
31:59The first explosion breaks up the firewall, launching the panels around Module B like unguided missiles.
32:07Each panel was equivalent to driving a one-ton car at 24 miles an hour into the pipework.
32:15Investigators believe that these flying panels rupture a relatively lightweight condensate pipe in Module B.
32:25That condensate fueled the fireball seen in the photograph.
32:31But this fireball lasted only a few seconds.
32:37It may look big, but the investigators don't believe it was lethal enough to destroy Piper Alpha.
32:45Something else caused another massive explosion, 19 minutes later, that doomed the 20,000-ton platform.
32:52What was it?
32:59Investigators are trying to explain a massive series of fires and explosions that destroyed the gigantic offshore oil platform Piper
33:06Alpha, leaving 167 men dead.
33:13After two explosions, a new fire was now burning on part of the platform called Module B.
33:19It was fueled by something, but what?
33:23A sequence of 20 photographs chronicles the early stages of the fire.
33:27It's not much, but it's the very best evidence they have.
33:30You can see the fireball lifting away from the front of the platform, and that leaves behind a very different
33:39type of fire, producing a huge plume of smoke.
33:44A smoky plume is characteristic of a crude oil fire.
33:48Module B was one of the worst places to have a fire, because it contains tanks that store up to
33:5455 tons of crude oil.
34:01With one hour, 10 minutes left, the situation escalates.
34:06A colossal explosion shakes the rig.
34:09It creates an inferno that rages on the underside of the platform.
34:14But this new fire is not in Module B, where the first oil fire is burning.
34:19It's below it.
34:23How did it get down through the deck?
34:27Once again, investigators search for clues in the pictures taken just after the fireball.
34:35If you look at the photographs, it's clear that there is a fire below Module B.
34:44They realize this can only mean one thing.
34:47Flaming crude oil is running downwards to fuel this fire.
34:50They're certain that it drips onto an area where the rigged divers prepare for work.
34:56But this area is covered by grates.
34:59The burning oil should drip straight through the holes and into the sea.
35:04Instead, it settles there, forming a large fire.
35:08Again, investigators are stuck.
35:13Then they discover a vital clue.
35:15The divers have placed rubber matting over these gratings.
35:19When they were diving, they didn't want to, with bare feet, step on a very sharp grating.
35:25And unfortunately, above this area was the high-pressure collecting line to Tartan.
35:31Tartan is another oil rig close to Piper Alpha.
35:35This pipeline carries high-pressure gas to it.
35:40Investigators now believe this oil forms a burning puddle on the rubber matting directly under the pipe,
35:46containing gas pressurized to more than 120 atmospheres, 70 times the pressure in a car tire.
35:54Without this rubber matting, the fire might have been contained, the whole catastrophe prevented.
36:01But with it, the pipe heats up quickly, weakening the metal.
36:06Intense heat, weak metal, high-pressure gas, the next event is inevitable.
36:12And when it burst, there was somewhere between 15 and 30 tons of high-pressure gas ejected almost instantaneously.
36:21And that is what is seen in this huge fireball, 150 meters in diameter, completely engulfing the whole of the
36:29platform.
36:31Gas pours out of the burst high-pressure pipeline at the rate of half a ton per second.
36:40Equivalent to nearly the entire domestic consumption of gas in the UK.
36:44It continues to do so for a further hour.
36:51The failure of the high-pressure gas pipeline changes everything.
36:56There was no way back. It's really melting the center out of the platform.
37:06There are still two more gas pipelines that run from Piper Alpha.
37:11The larger of them contains 1,120 tons of pressurized gas, three times as much as the one that has
37:18already burst.
37:21Investigators realize that it was now just a matter of time before these other gas pipes failed.
37:27One hour, ten minutes before the break-up of the rig, there was no hope of stopping the inferno.
37:33An even larger explosion shakes Piper Alpha.
37:37One of the two remaining pipelines has burst.
37:40Bob Ballantyne survives it. His friends on the other side of the rig are not so lucky.
37:46There was an explosion and they were caught up in a fireball and incinerated.
37:52Ian Lethem's rescue boat was tangled in debris below the rig.
37:57The explosion destroyed the boat and killed everyone on board, except Ian.
38:03I ended up in the water, looked around the place and the whole place was just alight.
38:06The sea was alight, everything was alight.
38:09By now, the fire is so great, photographic evidence is useless.
38:15So investigators gather electronic data from other oil rigs connected to Piper Alpha.
38:2340 minutes to go.
38:26The investigators discover that the gas pressure in the larger of the two remaining pipelines begins to fall rapidly.
38:33It's this which is now burst.
38:36Only one gas line connecting Piper Alpha to the Claymore platform 35 kilometers away remains intact.
38:47Ten minutes remaining.
38:49There's another massive gas explosion.
38:53It's the final pipeline failing.
39:00One hour and 30 minutes after the chain of events begins, the disaster claims its final victims.
39:10The living quarters where so many workers took refuge slips off the platform and down to the bottom of the
39:16North Sea, taking with it the last of the crew of Piper Alpha.
39:21One hour after the housing block collapses, there's nothing left of Piper Alpha except for the burnt-out wreckage of
39:28Module A.
39:31From tiny scraps of evidence, the investigators have managed to piece together a coherent explanation of the catastrophe.
39:38But there is still one more shocking revelation.
39:42A final link in the chain involving not failed technology, but simple paperwork.
39:49The gigantic oil and gas platform Piper Alpha has been destroyed.
39:54Second by second, investigators are lining up the pieces.
39:59The deadly sequence begins at 9.45 p.m.
40:03When workers attempt to start a pump with a critical safety valve missing.
40:10What investigators don't understand is why the workers started the pump in this unsafe condition.
40:18The permit to work, or PTW, is designed to alert everyone to maintenance work that is underway to prevent just
40:25this kind of accident.
40:28When investigators analyze the PTWs, they discover that a permit was issued for routine maintenance on one of the pumps
40:35at 7.45 a.m.
40:36They believe that a separate permit was issued later on for work on its safety valve.
40:42But the permits that would prove this theory lie buried in the sunken remains of Piper Alpha 145 meters beneath
40:49the surface of the sea.
40:51Then, three months after the accident, salvage teams raise two blocks of living quarters from the sea floor.
40:5981 bodies are recovered and laid to rest.
41:03And the investigators are then able to hunt inside for further clues.
41:08They find a mass of waterlogged paperwork.
41:13Astonishingly, after a raging fire and three months at the bottom of the sea, this paperwork yields critical evidence.
41:21And, lo and behold, yes, there was a copy of the actual permit to work.
41:27And it was a huge buzz because we had heard that one was probably issued, but we weren't sure.
41:33And here it was, we actually had the actual copy.
41:37This is the original permit, recovered from the bottom of the North Sea.
41:41Permit to work number 23434 for the maintenance operation on valve number PSV 504, dated July the 6th, 1988.
41:52It's the first link in the deadly chain of events.
41:57Investigators are now certain that there were two permits issued, one for the pump and a completely separate one for
42:03its safety valve.
42:05On Piper Alpha, the crew stores permits in different boxes for each area of the platform.
42:11This seems logical, but creates a fundamental problem.
42:15Because the pump is in one part of the platform, but its valve is in a completely different area.
42:20And that means the permits are stored in separate boxes.
42:25That really starts to be where the problem comes.
42:28The two permits should have been held together.
42:30That simple error or clerical mistake, perhaps, meant that these two permits were separate.
42:38When the operator checks the pump's permit, there's nothing with it to warn him that the safety valve has been
42:43removed.
42:44That permit is stored separately in another box.
42:47It might as well not have existed at all.
42:50So, when pump B stopped, and there was a question asked, can I get pump A going?
42:57The maintenance lead hand said, yeah, fine.
43:01As they attempt to stop the pump, they set in motion the chain of events.
43:09Investigators believe that the workers on duty that night did not know the safety valve was missing.
43:15Otherwise, the experienced operators would never have tried to stop the pump.
43:21The only permit they see is for the pump.
43:24It doesn't mention the safety valve.
43:29At the heart of this tragedy, behind the raging fires, the explosions, the collapse of the 20,000 ton rig,
43:37and the loss of 167 lives,
43:40behind the entire catastrophe, lies a flawed system of permits to work.
43:52A tightly linked sequence of events leads to the disaster on Piper Alpha.
43:57A break anywhere in that chain could have reduced the impact of the catastrophe, or even prevented it.
44:05If the permit system had been effective, the night shift would have known a safety valve was missing.
44:10If the flat metal disc had been fully tightened, the condensate would not have leaked.
44:17If the firewalls had been able to withstand the explosion, the disaster would not have spread.
44:24If divers had not placed rubber matting on the metal grate, a pool of burning oil would not have formed,
44:30and the massive high-pressure gas pipe would not have exploded, sending Piper Alpha into the sea and 167 men
44:37to their depths.
44:41The Cullen inquiry criticised many aspects of North Sea oil rig operations.
44:46But its most serious criticisms targeted the flawed permit to work system,
44:50which the inquiry identified as the most significant culprit in the tragedy.
44:57Occidental Petroleum, Piper Alpha's operating company, paid millions in compensation to victims' families.
45:02But because of insufficient evidence, no criminal charges were ever brought.
45:10Piper Alpha's survivors pay a far heavier price.
45:14Dave Lambert found the burden of survival almost intolerable.
45:18I had feelings of guilt. Why me? Why did I survive? Even though, obviously, I'm happy I survived.
45:24Your whole life actually changes. Everything seemed to stand still. Nothing really seemed important.
45:31And it took quite a number of years to get over them failings.
45:38For Ian Lethem, sole survivor of his rescue boat, the effect has been more fundamental.
45:44I was always happy, didn't care, get on with it, bit of laugh.
45:49Now I find life's too short now. I find I've got awful serious.
45:54You know, I don't, I can't be bothered with insignificant things anymore.
45:58I just crack on with important things now.
46:01That annoys me because I liked the way I was before Piper.
46:04I don't particularly like the way I am now.
46:14The Cullen Report recommended massive changes to almost every aspect of the way that British offshore operations are carried out.
46:22But the lessons learnt have repercussions for the oil industry in Britain and worldwide.
46:27The hope is, there will never again be a disaster like that of Piper Alpha.
46:35The Cullen Report.
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