Events

On The 6th July 1988 A Simple Breakdown In Communication Had Catastrophic Consequences

The first explosion occurred at 22:00. We know this as a survivor had just turned on the TV news and the news presenter had not started to speak. This was not a gas riser explosion, it was a smaller, but still very serious explosion in the Gas Compression Module.

This caused a major oil fire, knocked out power and all communications on the rig. You can see the oil fire at 00:06 in our footage.

This explosion was caused by a leak of condensate (Propane) in the gas compression module. At about 21:45 the pump used to inject the condensate into the line to shore tripped out. The night shift tried to restart the pump but failed.

There was a second installed pump that had had maintenance work carried out earlier that day. The night shift team thought it would be an easy task to get this second pump operational again. They were unaware that a second related maintenance task had been carried out on a pressure relief valve near the pump.

The maintenance team earlier that day had not completed the task and fitted a flange in place of the relief valve, planning to complete the task the next day. The flange had not been fitted correctly.

The afternoon maintenance team finished work at 18:00 as there was an overtime ban in place.

The night shift team had not been provided with any ‘permit to work’ information regarding the relief valve. When they attempted to recommission the 2nd pump, condensate leaked. This caused the initial explosion which blew down the fire wall and damaged equipment in the oil separation unit. There was an almost immediate very large oil fire.

This meant oil was being pumped into the centre of the fire at high pressure creating immense temperatures. At 22:20 the first gas riser exploded, this was the Tartan riser. This is at 00:13 in our footage.

At 22:50 there was a second violent explosion believed to have been caused by the rupture of the MCP-01 gas line. The blast was felt a mile away and debris was projected nearly 1km from the Piper Platform. This is at 09:04 in our footage. Ole is not recording at the very start of the explosion. There are multiple further smaller explosions over the next couple of minutes. At 10:41 in our footage white hot debris can be seen falling into the sea about half a mile to the right of the rig. The failure of the MCP-01 gas line also destroyed a Fire Rescue vessel from the Sandhaven killing 2 of its crew.

At 19:28 in our footage on the audio you can hear the tragic ship to ship radio traffic:

“Yeh copy that, apparently it was (inaudible) Rossimore’s brother. He was along side the rig, when er, there was er an explotion and, Ive been unable to contact him since”

At 23:18 there was a 3rd explosion. This is at 14:47 in our footage. Witnesses reported this as being the largest explosion that night. This is believed to have been caused by the failure of the Claymore gas riser.

This explosion was the cause of the structural collapse of the centre of the rig. By 00:15, just an hour later the North end of Piper Alpha had disappeared into the sea.

If you look at the frame before this third explosion you can see the high pressure gas flare to the left of the rig is bright and stable with a large flare. Advance to the next frame and you can see Ole had stopped filming and started again just as the third explosion was taking place. Note the high pressure gas flare has now depleted due to a massive and instant drop in pressure as the Claymore riser failed. At 15:48 in our footage the high pressure gas flare is obscured by the fire boat water spray as it moves back from the rig. By 16:31 in our footage the fire is probably at its most intense.