July 6, 1988. It's a perfectly normal workday on the giant Piper Alpha drilling platform in the North Sea. Two workers are tasked with repairing a safety valve on one of the pumps. However, they fail to finish before the end of their shift. As a result, they leave the faulty valve behind, planning to finish the job the next day. Little do they know, however, that this will have catastrophic consequences.

In this episode of the "Black Boxes" podcast, we talk about the fire on the Piper Alpha drilling platform that claimed the lives of 167 people. Why did the gas explosion occur? What was the dramatic fight for life and the rescue operation like? How did this disaster forever change safety standards in the oil industry? Based on the original version of the podcast episode "Code: Catastrophe" by Amanda Lång. Read by Kuba Śliwiński.

00:00 Intro
01:11 Piper Alpha
09:38 An Ordinary Day on the Oil Rig
04:25 The First Problems
08:01 The Explosion
14:05 The Rescue
18:40 The Investigation
21:56 The Aftermath of the Tragedy