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Fireproof, Not Blastproof: The Piper Alpha Disaster | Fascinating Horror

Fascinating Horror

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"On the 6th of July 1988 an explosion took place on board the Piper Alpha oil platform situated in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland..."

Fascinating Horror posts weekly videos covering the true stories behind some of history's greatest disasters. The channel is made possible by supporters on Patreon and YouTube channel members. HUGE thanks to everyone who supports this channel!

LINKS: 🔗
► My other channel: @fascinatinghistoric
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► Get in touch: hello@fascinatinghorror.co.uk

CHAPTERS: 🔖
► 00:00 - Intro
► 00:40 - Background
► 02:29 - The Piper Alpha Disaster
► 08:35 - The Aftermath

MUSIC: 🎵
► "Glass Pond" by Public Memory

SOURCES: 📑
► "Piper Alpha: The Disaster in Detail" by Fiona Macleod and Stephen Richardson, published by The Chemical Engineer, July 2018. Link: https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/f...
► "The Piper Alpha Disaster: A Personal Perspective with Transferrable Lessons on the Long-Term Moral Impact of Safety Failures" by Marc Reid, published by the American Chemical Society, February 2020. Available via: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs....
► "The Public Inquiry into the Piper Alpha Disaster" by the Hon Lord Cullen, published by The Health and Safety Executive, November 1990. Available via: https://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/piper...
► "Piper Alpha survivor Billy Clayton re-lives fateful night of horrors" by Katie Davies, published by Chronicle Live, July 2013. Link: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/...

#Documentary #History #TrueStories

20 Comments

@FascinatingHorror Creator 1 year ago Pinned

There's an odd connection between this story and the collapse of the Alexander Kielland oil platform in 1980. Both rigs were attended by the same rescue vessel - the Silver Pit. Here's the story of the Alexander Kielland disaster if you'd like to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZrEocLHL5Q

@TheRealChristopherB 3 years ago

The thought of being so shell-shocked from the fire and from the explosion that you don't realize that the man you're trying to find rescue with is dead. What a brutal account to retell.

@williamwilson6499 3 years ago

I knew a survivor from this disaster, Keith Cunningham, a diver on the rig. He was working as Generator Mechanic/Dive Master for the Lady Jenny 5 working on the Red Sea when I met him.

Keith was one of the best divers I ever met and I learned a lot just watching him on a dive. His ability to move so effortlessly through the water made me copy everything he did.

When he saw the dive suit I brought with me, he said it wasn’t adequate for the Red Sea and he lent me a spare wetsuit. After a couple of dives, I realized how miserable I would have been if he hadn’t shown some kindness to a rookie diver.

He was also the most Zen person I’ve known in my 64 years on this planet. Always soft spoken, calm, and collected.

I was a Yank living in Yorkshire when the disaster happened. Had no idea I would ever know someone who had gone through it.

The only reason I knew about it was from the acting skipper of the boat…we were talking on the bridge about random stuff and I mentioned how Keith was the most calm person I ever met.

That’s when he told me that Keith was one of the survivors. I never brought it up to Keith as I figured if he wanted to talk about it he would.

He passed away a few years back. 2014 I believe. I’m glad I got to know him.

@mrwri 3 years ago

My dad was working on a nearby support vessel. He once told me about pulling people out of the water and their skin coming away. I've never asked him about it ever again.

@ZombieSazza 3 years ago (edited)

My late step-father Hamish was the medical examiner at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary when this happened, he was the guy who determined the cause of death. He didn’t talk about the Piper Alpha often, but when he did he told me it was the reason he stopped being an ME, that a lot of the bodies weren’t intact, and it left him with PTSD, horrible depression and alcoholism. Any time I visit Hazlehead Park I go to the Piper Alpha memorial, I think of Hamish. He eventually took his life at 56, it was just too much to live with.

If anyone is ever up this way visiting Aberdeen I’d recommend visiting Hazlehead, it’s a beautiful memorial.

Edit: thanks to everyone in the replies for letting me speak about Hamish, he died a decade ago but being able to speak about him has really helped in a way. I still grieve him but understand his mental suffering was just too severe, so being able to speak about our fond memories has teared me up in a good way.

@Joeyjoejoe5432 3 years ago

Every time I have to lock onto multiple isolation permit stations just to get a simple job done I remember that it was incidents like this that prompted such byzantine procedures. Our safety is bought with the lives of many workers before us.

@purple16popcorn 3 years ago

I learned something new today (aside from this horrible tragedy) you’re not supposed to jump into the water with a life jacket.

@tmahdng 3 years ago

Out of all FH videos, I think this is one that's shocked me the most. Especially the parts about the 6 survivors perishing in the boat and the survivor who didn't realise the fate of the person he clung onto. I'm not surprised so many were affected by this afterwards.

@gingercube688 3 years ago

That was a hard line to hear, the 6 men just rescued plus the 2 rescuers died. Shit, what kind of savage luck is that

@Unownshipper 3 years ago

God, more than once in this video I thought “just when I thought this can’t get any worse.” What a catastrophe. Special condolences to the rescue workers of the Sandhaven who died gallantly trying to save others.

@richardmcavoy6413 3 years ago

Need I say, if your oil platform is pumping oil to another platform that is on fire, and you are afraid to stop pumping, your supervisors should spend the rest of their lives in prison.

@Umichellee 3 years ago

How sad for all of those people. I'm especially saddened to think of the six people that survived the blast and fire, survived jumping into the ocean while avoiding debris, only to have been killed after they climbed aboard the rescue boat.

@yvonnejohnson2688 3 years ago (edited)

My cousin was a derrick man on this rig.. He was on holiday at the time and they flew him home and he helped cap the fires with red adair.. Said it was horrible to see.. He lost a lot of friends.. Such a tragedy

@indigohammer5732 3 years ago

I vividly remember this. I was painting T-shirts with my brother when the news broke. I live in Glasgow, so local television was quick to spring into action. Only when you saw the rig ablaze, that you realised how bad it was. It's an absolute horror made real. It could be seen from Aberdeen!!!!! I worked with a guy whose son died. He fought for regulation until his death. I had read that the escaping gas was at such a high pressure, that the friction of it escaping ignited it. Machinery screaming before it explodes in flames!!

@rich_edwards79 3 years ago (edited)

One of a series of huge disasters in Britain in the mid-late 80s. Bradford City, Zeebrugge, Lockerbie, Kings Cross, Hillsborough... it seemed as though every other week, something terrible happened.

@Regnbuesolv 3 years ago

My Dad, a structural engineer, was on leave that week in Bristol with my Mum. His best friend Christopher also worked there and was on shift. He was one of the lucky people on the life boat, but clearly remembers the burning fireballs. Mum insisted Dad stop working on the platforms after this and indeed he never returned. The CEO of the company who owned Piper Alpha was a terrible person who never faced repercussions.

@reachandler3655 3 years ago

It seems incredulous that no-one thought putting a sign directly on equipment to indicate it was out of order might be a good idea.

@BarbaraJikai 3 years ago

I worked in that business at that time. Off shore. As a telex operator for a pipe-laying company which at the moment of the accident happened to work in the North Sea. Many of my collegues had friends, family working in the oil industry too. Some of those people on board of Piper-Alpha. Right after the disaster happened, the telexes went berserk. Many a collegue's face went pale as a sheet. Our ship stopped their work and went to the location of Piper-Alpha to see if they could offer any help. But there was nothing they could do. It was a horrifying an sad time.

@DriftedDreams2 3 years ago

Two of my uncles died in this disaster and one survived. A lot of my family worked on this rig. The repercussions were still being felt heavily in 1998

@MissAtrobel 3 years ago

My grandfather was a radio operator that night. He was one of the people coordinating the rescue effort. I have his transcriptions from the night but I've never looked at them. Not sure if I ever will.