That HeyA small mistake when operating equipment caused a group of divers working on an oil rig in the North Sea in 1983 to experience an extremely painful death.
Deep ocean diving is a risky activity, not least because of the risk of decompression sickness. To minimize risk, divers must swim up slowly at the end of the expedition. On oil rigs, where equipment needs to be regularly inspected and adjusted, this can delay operations. To address that situation, divers are sometimes placed in saturation chambers. This is a specially designed chamber with beds, necessities and many other daily necessities, pressurized to have the same pressure as the underwater area where divers work.
According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), when saturation diving, the diver will stay in deep water long enough to bring all tissues in the body into balance with the pressure of compressed air in the tank. Most recreational and scientific diving requires divers to undergo hours of decompression before returning to the surface after each dive. Saturation diving saves time by exposing the diver to high pressure the entire time. The saturation chamber is filled with a mixture of oxygen and helium to prevent nitrogen buildup in the blood, with the side effect that divers inside the saturation chamber have to speak loudly.
The worst accident in the history of diving occurred in the North Sea in 1983. On November 5, 1983, at the Byford Dolphin rig off the coast of Norway, a diving bell was pulled from the ocean and attached to the storm chamber. draw. The saturation chamber consisted of chamber 1 containing Edwin Coward and Roy Lucas and chamber 2 containing Bjørn Bergersen and Truls Hellevik, divers who had just returned from a shift. The diving bell is connected to compartment 1, operated by maintainers William Crammond and Martin Saunders.
The pressure in these areas must always be kept at a balanced level, to ensure that the diving bell can be easily separated. The maintainers in charge of this must follow a strict 5-step process including: closing the diving bell door, increasing the pressure in the diving bell to seal the door, closing the door between compartment 1 and the connecting compartment, depressurizing the connecting compartment. connect, finally unlock to let the diving bell separate.
However, while the compartment doors were closing, Crammond suddenly unlocked the diving bell. The entire junction chamber is suddenly exposed to the normal environment, resulting in a pressure difference that causes the system to explode. All four divers faced an explosion that exceeded the human body’s endurance, causing them to die on the spot, their bodies intact. Air from the connecting compartment also pushed the diving bell out, hitting two maintenance workers, killing one and seriously injuring the other.
The sudden pressure difference caused the blood of 3 of the 4 divers to boil and evaporate. For the fourth person, the pressure caused his body to explode, his internal organs flying dozens of meters away. An autopsy showed that the organs were even still intact.
This fatal accident led to the formation of the Union of North Sea Divers. Although the investigation report concluded that the accident was due to human error, the Union still decided to file a lawsuit against the rig for not having enough safety equipment. After 26 years of fighting, investigators determined that the rig had faulty equipment that led to the accident, helping Crammond be cleared of responsibility. Relatives of the victims also received compensation after the loss.