Piper Alpha was an
oil platform
An oil platform (also called an oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, etc.) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms w ...
located in the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...
about north-east of
Aberdeen
Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
, Scotland. It was operated by
Occidental Petroleum (Caledonia) Limited (OPCAL) and began production in December 1976,
initially as an oil-only platform, but later converted to add gas production.
Piper Alpha exploded and collapsed under the effect of sustained gas
jet fires in the night between 6 and 7 July 1988, killing 165 of the men on board (30 of whose bodies were never recovered), as well as a further two rescuers.
Sixty-one workers escaped and survived. The total insured loss was about £1.7 billion (£ billion in ), making it one of the
costliest man-made catastrophes ever.
At the time of the disaster, the platform accounted for roughly 10% of
North Sea oil and gas production
and was the world’s single largest oil producer.
The accident is the worst ever offshore oil and gas disaster in terms of lives lost, and comparable only to the
''Deepwater Horizon'' disaster in terms of industry impact.
The inquiry blamed it on inadequate maintenance and safety procedures by Occidental, though no charges were brought. A separate civil suit resulted in a finding of negligence against two workers who were killed in the accident.
A memorial sculpture is located in the Rose Garden of
Hazlehead Park
Hazlehead Park is a public park in the Hazlehead, Aberdeen, Hazlehead area of Aberdeen, Scotland. 180 hectares in size, it was opened to the public in 1920, having formerly been the estate of Hazlehead House, home of William Rose, shipbuilder. I ...
in Aberdeen.
Piper oilfield

Four companies (
Occidental Petroleum (UK) Ltd,
Getty Oil International (England) Ltd,
Allied Chemical (Great Britain) Ltd, and
Thomson Scottish Associates Ltd) formed a joint venture and obtained an oil-exploration licence in 1972. They discovered the
Piper oilfield located at in January 1973, and began fabrication of the platform, pipelines, and onshore support structures. Oil production started in December 1976, less than four years after discovery (a record rarely beaten ever since),
with about of oil per day, later increasing to .
Production declined to by 1988.
A large,
fixed platform, Piper Alpha was located in the Piper oilfield, around northeast of Aberdeen in of water. Piper Alpha produced
crude oil
Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring u ...
and
natural gas
Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...
from 36
wells.
OPCAL built the
Flotta oil terminal in the
Orkney Islands
Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland ...
to receive and process oil from the Piper,
Claymore (both operated by OPCAL), and
Tartan
Tartan or plaid ( ) is a patterned cloth consisting of crossing horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours, forming repeating symmetrical patterns known as ''setts''. Originating in woven wool, tartan is most strongly associated wi ...
(
Texaco
Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Independ ...
) oilfields, each with its own platform.
One diameter main oil
pipeline
A pipeline is a system of Pipe (fluid conveyance), pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries ...
ran from Piper Alpha to Flotta.
The Piper platform was the hub of a network of pipelines connecting it to nearby platforms and to shore. The Tartan field fed oil to Claymore, with the co-mingled oil flowing from Claymore through a short pipeline to join the Piper-Flotta line some to the west of Piper.
Separate diameter gas pipelines were run from the Tartan platform to Piper, and from Piper to the
Total-operated
manifold compression platform MCP-01 some to the northwest. Another line connected Claymore to Piper, primarily to provide gas from Piper to the Claymore
gas lift
A gas lift or bubble pump is a type of pump that can raise fluid between elevations by introducing gas bubbles into a vertical outlet tube; as the bubbles rise within the tube they cause a drop in the hydrostatic pressure behind them, causing t ...
system.
MCP-01 would receive the gas from Piper and Tartan, as well as from the
Frigg gas field
Frigg gas field is a natural gas field on Norwegian block 25/1 in the North Sea, on the boundary between the United Kingdom and Norway. The field is named after the goddess Frigg. King Olav V of Norway officially opened production on 8 May 1978. P ...
(through a separate pipeline), and send the resulting stream to
St Fergus Gas Terminal through a , 2 × 32-inch pipeline.
The inventory of the pipelines was significant, with the main oil line to Flotta containing around 70,000 tonnes of oil and the three gas lines linking Piper to the surrounding platforms close to 2,000 tonnes of high-pressure gas.
The pressure in the Tartan–Piper and Piper–MCP-01 pipelines was around 127 bar.
Construction and layout
Piper Alpha's production facilities were designed by
Bechtel
Bechtel Corporation () is an American engineering, procurement, construction, and project management company founded in San Francisco, California in 1898, and headquartered in Reston, Virginia in the Washington metropolitan area. , the '' E ...
in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. The supporting platform jacket, as well as the
topside module structures and buildings, were designed by
McDermott Hudson. The eight-legged jacket structure was constructed by
J. Ray McDermott in
Ardersier,
Inverness-shire
Inverness-shire () or the County of Inverness, is a Counties of Scotland, historic county in Scotland. It is named after Inverness, its largest settlement, which was also the county town. Covering much of the Scottish Highlands, Highlands and s ...
, and
Union Industrielle et d'Entreprise in
Le Havre
Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...
, France, with the sections united in Ardersier before being towed out during 1975. The jacket weighed around 14,000 tonnes and was tall, of which a length of was permanently submerged. Four clusters of
foundation piles extended a further below the seabed. Topside modules weighing about 10,000 tonnes in aggregate were lifted from a
crane ship and installed over the jacket in late 1976.
Piper's hydrocarbon facilities and principal utilities were distributed in four main modules (A, B, C, and D) separated by firewalls and sitting atop the steel jacket. Above the main modules were a
drilling derrick, various utilities, the living quarters,
flare booms, two
pedestal cranes, and the
helideck.
For safety reasons, the modules were organized so that the most dangerous platform operations took place far from the personnel areas.
However, the conversion from oil to gas broke this safety concept, with the result that sensitive areas were brought together; for example, the gas compression module was next to the control room. The close position of these two areas played a significant role in the accident.
The hydrocarbon inventory actually held within the platform was small in comparison with that contained in the pipelines, standing at around 80 tonnes of process fluids and 160 tonnes of
diesel fuel
Diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, heavy oil (historically) or simply diesel, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a re ...
(which was stored in tanks located above module C).
Upgrades and production modes
In 1978, major works were carried out to enable the platform to meet British government gas-conservation requirements, and to avoid waste from the
flaring of excess gas. A gas conservation module (GCM) was added, built on top of module B. After this work, Piper Alpha operated in what was known as "phase-2 mode", i.e., using the GCM facility. In phase-2 mode, the GCM would treat the gas obtained in the crude oil separation process, separate
condensate (or natural gas liquids, NGL) from it, reinject the condensate in the oil export pipeline to Flotta, and compress the gas for export to the pipeline to MCP-01. From the end of 1980 until July 1988, phase-2 mode was its normal operating state.
In the late 1980s, major construction, maintenance, and upgrade works were planned by Occidental, and by July 1988, the rig was already well into major revamp, with six projects identified, including the change-out of the GCM unit. This meant that the rig was returned to its initial "phase-1 mode", i.e., operating without the GCM unit, only three days before the accident. Despite the complex and demanding work schedule, Occidental made the decision to continue operating the platform in phase-1 mode throughout this period and not to shut it down, as had been originally planned. The planning and controls that were put in place were thought to be adequate. At the time of the accident, Piper weighed around 34,000 tonnes. It continued to export oil at just under per day (or 10% of the entire production of the UK sector of the North Sea, which made it the world’s single largest oil producer)
and to export Tartan gas at some per day at
standard conditions during this period.
Events on 6 and 7 July 1988
Because the platform was completely destroyed, and many of those involved died, analysis of events can only suggest a possible chain of events based on known facts. Some witnesses to the events question the official timeline.
Preliminary events
At 07:45, 6 July 1988, the
permit-to-work forms for the day shift were issued and signed.
Of the two condensate pumps, both located in module C, pump B was operating to displace the platform's condensate for transport to the coast, while pump A was due for maintenance. Two permits were issued to that effect, one for a pump overhaul and another for the removal of the pump's
pressure safety valve
A safety valve is a valve that acts as a fail-safe. An example of safety valve is a pressure relief valve (PRV), which automatically releases a substance from a boiler, pressure vessel, or other system, when the pressure or temperature exceeds ...
(PSV #504), which was due for recertification. During the day, pump A was electrically and mechanically isolated, but containment was not broken. The PSV, instead, was removed. The open condensate pipe upstream of the PSV was temporarily sealed with a disk cover (a flat metal disc also called a blind
flange
A flange is a protruded ridge, lip or rim (wheel), rim, either external or internal, that serves to increase shear strength, strength (as the flange of a steel beam (structure), beam such as an I-beam or a T-beam); for easy attachment/transfer o ...
or blank flange). It was hand-tightened only. Because the work could not be completed by 18:00, the blind flange remained in place. The on-duty engineer filled in information on the PSV removal permit to the effect that pump A was not ready and must not be switched on under any circumstances. However, this information was not provided in the pump overhaul permit.
The night shift started at 18:00 with 62 men running Piper Alpha. As the on-duty custodian was busy, the engineer neglected to inform him of the condition of pump A. Instead, he placed the PSV permit in the
control centre and left. This permit disappeared and was not found.
At 19:00 the diesel-driven
fire pumps were put under manual control. Like many other offshore platforms, Piper Alpha had an automatic fire-fighting system, driven by both diesel and electric fire pumps. The pumps were designed to suck in large amounts of sea water for firefighting and had automatic controls to start them in case of fire. However, the Piper Alpha procedure adopted by the
offshore installation manager
The offshore installation manager (OIM) is the most senior manager of an offshore platform operating on the UK Continental Shelf.
Many offshore operators have adopted this UK offshore management model and title and applied it to their operations i ...
(OIM) required manual control of the diesel pumps whenever divers were in the water (as they were for about 12 hours a day during summer) although in reality, the risk was not seen as significant, unless a diver was closer than from any of the four level caged intakes. A recommendation from an earlier audit had suggested that a procedure be developed to keep the pumps in automatic mode if divers were not working in the vicinity of the intakes, as was the practice on the Claymore platform, but this was never implemented.
At 21:45, condensate pump B stopped and could not be restarted. This was likely due to the formation of
hydrates
In chemistry, a hydrate is a substance that contains water or its constituent elements. The chemical state of the water varies widely between different classes of hydrates, some of which were so labeled before their chemical structure was understo ...
and the consequent blockage of gas compression pipework, following problems with the
methanol
Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical compound and the simplest aliphatic Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with the chemical formula (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often ab ...
system. The operators were anxious to reinstate condensate pumping capacity. Failure to do so would have meant needing to stop the
gas compressors
A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor.
Many compressors can be staged, that is, the gas is compressed several times in steps or ...
and venting to the flare all the gas that could not be processed.
Around 21:52 a search was made through the documents to determine whether condensate pump A could be started. The permit for pump A overhaul was found but that for its PSV removal was not. The valve was at a distance from the pump, so the permits were stored in different boxes, as they were sorted by location. Because the overhaul had just started on the day, with no equipment removed or containment broken, the operators were under the impression that the pump could be put back in operation quickly and safely. None of those present were aware that a vital part of the machine had been removed. The missing valve was not noticed by anyone, particularly as the blind flange replacing the safety valve was several metres above ground level and obstructed from view.
Explosion in module C and initial reactions
At or shortly before 22:00,
gas was reintroduced into pump A, filling it. The loosely fitted flange did not withstand the resulting pressure. Gas audibly leaked out at high pressure, drawing the attention of several men and triggering multiple
gas alarms. Before anyone could act, the gas ignited and exploded. The source of ignition is unclear, with the later investigation pointing to
hot work, hot surfaces, broken light fittings or an electrostatic spark as potential sources (electrical equipment in the surroundings were
rated for hazardous areas). The platform, which originally was built for oil production only, was not of a blast-proof design, so the firewalls were not designed to withstand explosions. The blast blew through the
firewalls separating module C from the adjoining modules B and D (the latter of which housed the control room), made up of variously sized panels bolted together. As a result, the control room was almost entirely destroyed. Panels around module B were also dislodged, with one of them rupturing a small condensate pipe, thus creating another fire.
Immediately after the explosion, control room operator Geoff Bollands, who had witnessed the alarms going off in the control room and subsequently survived the blast, activated the rig's
emergency stop button
An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...
before escaping. This closed isolation valves in the wells and sea riser lines and ceased all oil and gas production. Theoretically, the platform would then have been isolated from the flow of oil and gas and the fire contained. The gas pipelines connecting Piper to Tartan and Claymore could only be isolated using separate push buttons, which were not actuated;
however, the riser isolation valves probably closed due to loss of power supply in the explosion. (At any rate, the flare continued to burn until 23:30, indicating a leak in the Claymore riser isolation valve.)
The control room of Piper Alpha was abandoned. The rig's design made no allowances for the destruction of the control room, and the platform's organization disintegrated. As the diesel fire pumps had been switched to manual activation, the fire water system could not function properly. Additionally, their vulnerable location in module D, adjacent to the failed division from module C, was impossible to reach for the crew to manually activate them. Electrical power quickly failed too, as cables were routed through vulnerable production areas without redundancy. After the main generator tripped, the
emergency generator did not take over. The drilling generator started but subsequently failed. Some battery-run systems remained operational for a while. The emergency lighting failed after briefly remaining functional.
The failure of power generation facilities also made the electric fire pumps inoperable.
Despite Bollands' activation of the
emergency shutdown, no alarms warned workers of the unfolding disaster, as the
public announcement and general alarm system had been impaired. Multiple
mayday
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications.
It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiz ...
calls were made by
radio operator
A radio operator (also, formerly, a wireless operator in British and Commonwealth English) is a person who is responsible for the operations of a radio system and the technicalities in broadcasting. The profession of radio operator has become l ...
David Kinrade starting at 22:04, before the radio room had to be abandoned at 22:08.
At 22:06 the heat from the flames ruptured crude oil pipework and processing vessels in module B. The released oil ignited and the subsequent
pool fire A pool fire is a type of diffusion flame where a layer of volatile liquid fuel is evaporating and burning. The fuel layer can be either on a horizontal solid substrate or floating on a higher-density liquid, usually water. Pool fires are an importan ...
created a black plume of smoke characteristic of oil fires, visible from nearby ships.
There is evidence that isolation of the produced oil pipeline was not effective, which may have left a route open for oil flowing into the fire due to the backpressure from the Claymore oil pipeline.
The burning oil later dripped onto a lower platform used by the rig for diving operations. The platform floor consisted of
steel grates, and under normal circumstances would have allowed the burning oil to drip harmlessly into the sea, but divers on the previous shift had placed rubber matting on the metal grate (likely to cushion their bare feet from the sharp metal grates), allowing the oil to form a burning puddle on the platform.
After conferring with Bollands and others while still on the main production deck, lead production operator Robert Vernon and safety officer Robert Carroll donned
breathing apparatus
A breathing apparatus or breathing set is equipment which allows a person to breathe in a hostile environment where breathing would otherwise be impossible, difficult, harmful, or hazardous, or assists a person to breathe. A respirator, medical v ...
and left for the diesel fire pumps in an attempt to start them manually. The pair were never to be seen again.
The OIMs of Tartan and Claymore shortly before 22:20 became aware that an explosion had taken place on Piper Alpha and a fire was raging. However, they both decided not to shut down production and instead await orders to that effect from Aberdeen. By this time, 70 to 80 men had mustered in the canteen, with access to the
lifeboats or the helideck made impossible by smoke and fire. This room was becoming increasingly hot and full of smoke.
Piper's OIM did not order an evacuation.
Subsequent gas pipeline ruptures and platform collapse
At 22:20, in a case of
domino effect
A domino effect is the cumulative effect produced when one event sets off a series of similar or related events, a form of chain reaction. The term is an analogy to a falling row of dominoes. It typically refers to a linked sequence of events ...
, the heat from the burning oil collecting on the diving platform caused the nearby Tartan pipeline to rupture violently. This discharged enormous amounts of highly flammable gas (some 30 tonnes only in the first minute of the release),
which immediately ignited into a massive
jet fire.
The heat and vibrations of the fire were felt by the crews in vessels as far away as from the rig. From that moment on, the platform's destruction was inevitable.
This potential for an extreme escalation scenario was known to Occidental; a report commissioned by them in 1986 stated that the gas pipelines "would take hours to depressurize because of their capacity. This could result in a high pressure gas fire on the cellar deck that would be virtually impossible to fight, and the protection systems would not be effective in providing the cooling needed for the duration of the depressurisation".
The MCP-01 pipeline failed at 22:50 as a result of domino effect, and the ensuing jet fire shot huge flames over into the air.
At this time, around 187 men had not evacuated; however, many of them had already perished.
Personnel still left alive were either desperately sheltering in the scorched, smoke-filled accommodation block or leaping from the various deck levels, including the helideck, into the North Sea.
The Claymore gas line ruptured at 23:20, adding even more fuel to the already massive jet fires on board Piper Alpha. At this point the Claymore OIM had received orders from Aberdeen to shut down production, and the gas flowline to Piper with it. He had initiated a pipeline blowdown (depressurization) but this was not yet complete at the moment of the rupture. Tartan's gas pipeline had been shut down around 22:30, with its blowdown commencing around 23:20.
Around 23:45, with critical support structures failing from the intense heat, the platform began to collapse. One of the cranes fell first, followed by the drilling derrick. The generation and utilities module (D) and the fireproofed accommodation block, still occupied by crewmen who had sheltered there, then slipped into the North Sea.
Some 80 men were in the block at the time.
By 00:45, 7 July, almost all of Piper Alpha was gone, with only module A still standing.
Rescue operations
Nearby vessels and rescue crafts

Vessels that were close to Piper Alpha at the moment of the first explosion included MSV ''
Tharos'', a large
semi-submersible
Semi-submersible may refer to a self-propelled vessel, such as:
*Heavy-lift ship, which partially submerge to allow their cargo (another ship) to float into place for transport
*Narco-submarine, some of which remained partially on the surface
*S ...
firefighting,
diving
Diving most often refers to:
* Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water
* Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes
Diving or Dive may also refer to:
Sports
* Dive (American football), ...
/
rescue
Rescue comprises responsive operations that usually involve the saving of life, removal from danger, liberation from restraint, or the urgent treatment of injury, injuries after an incident. It may be facilitated by a range of tools and equipm ...
, and
accommodation vessel; standby safety vessel
MV ''Silver Pit'', who immediately sent her
fast rescue boat towards Piper; ''Maersk Cutter'', which started dousing the drilling floor of Piper with her
fire monitors as early as ten minutes after the blast; ''Lowland Cavalier'', which had no monitors but immediately deployed a workboat; and converted supply ship ''Sandhaven'', which was the standby vessel for ''Santa Fe 135'', a semi-submersible
drilling rig
A drilling rig is an integrated system that Drilling, drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construction purposes, into the earth's subsurface. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to ...
several miles away, and had her fast rescue craft in the water minutes after she spotted the first fire on Piper Alpha. Other vessels that attended the operation later were ''Loch Shuna'', ''Maersk Logger'' and ''Maersk Leader''. Overall, 11 fast rescue crafts (FRC) from nearby vessels were involved in the rescue operations.
''Tharos'' launched her
Sikorsky S-76 helicopter at 22:11 but it was unable to land on Piper due to smoke. At 22:23 ''Tharos'' received a message from Piper: "People majority in
galley
A galley is a type of ship optimised for propulsion by oars. Galleys were historically used for naval warfare, warfare, Maritime transport, trade, and piracy mostly in the seas surrounding Europe. It developed in the Mediterranean world during ...
area. ''Tharos'' come.
Gangway.
Hose
A hose is a flexible hollow tube or pipe designed to carry fluids from one location to another, often from a faucet or hydrant.
Early hoses were made of leather, although modern hoses are typically made of rubber, canvas, and helically wound w ...
s. Getting bad." She drew alongside Piper Alpha around 22:30 and used her water cannon to cool the platform, which was useful in assisting survivors escape from the pipe deck and helideck. Attempts to deploy her extendable gangway over to Piper were unsuccessful. One survivor who jumped when the Tartan riser failed swam to ''Tharos'' and climbed out unaided. When the MCP-01 riser failed, ''Tharos'' withdrew to away. The MSV was equipped with a hospital with an offshore medic assisted by diver paramedics from a
saturation diving
Saturation diving is an ambient pressure diving technique which allows a diver to remain at working depth for extended periods during which the body tissues become solubility, saturated with metabolically inert gas from the breathing gas mixture ...
team. A triage and reception area were set up on the vessel's helideck to receive injured casualties.
''Silver Pit''
's FRC was launched within two minutes of the first explosion and rescued the first nine people from the northwest corner within 13 minutes. She rescued a total of 29 people, with ''Silver Pit'' herself rescuing a further eight. When the Tartan riser failed ''Silver Pit'' withdrew to away. When the MCP-01 riser failed, rope on the deck began to smoulder and the vessel withdrew further away.
''Lowland Cavalier'' deployed a workboat that picked up two people who had fallen from a rope at the northwest corner. When the first gas riser failed, the workboat crew sheltered in the water.
''Sandhaven''
's FRC picked up four men who had climbed down ropes. She returned and picked up two more when the MCP-01 riser failed. At that moment, the craft's
propeller
A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...
got entangled in debris. The boat was engulfed in the fire, throwing the survivors and the three crew into the water. All perished with the exception of
coxswain
The coxswain ( or ) is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives a literal meaning of "boat servant" since it comes from ''cock'', referring to the wiktionary:cockboat, cockboat, a ...
Iain Letham.
He was picked up from the sea one hour later with his
lifejacket
A personal flotation device (PFD; also referred to as a life jacket, life preserver, life belt, Mae West, life vest, life saver, cork jacket, buoyancy aid or flotation suit) is a flotation device in the form of a vest or suit that is worn by a u ...
and
safety helmet melted by the scorching heat.
Aircraft
A mayday launched by ''Lowland Cavalier'' at 22:01 was relayed to a
rescue coordination centre, which instructed
RAF Kinloss station to scramble a
Hawker Siddeley Nimrod
The Hawker Siddeley Nimrod is a retired maritime patrol aircraft developed and operated by the United Kingdom. It was an extensive modification of the de Havilland Comet, the world's first operational jet airliner. It was originally designed ...
maritime patrol aircraft. This was to be sent to the area to act as flying communications platform, handling the signals from helicopters and reporting them back. At 22:22 and 22:28
Sea King helicopters ''Rescue 137'' and ''Rescue 131'' took off from
RAF Lossiemouth and
RAF Boulmer
Royal Air Force Boulmer or more simply RAF Boulmer is a Royal Air Force station near Alnwick in Northumberland, England, and is home to Aerospace Surveillance and Control System (ASACS) Force Command, Control and Reporting Centre (CRC) Boulmer ...
respectively. Shetland
Coastguard helicopter ''Rescue 117'' took off at 22:45. Sea King ''Rescue 138'' left Lossiemouth at 22:51. The Nimrod took off from Kinloss at 22:55 using the designation ''Rescue 01''.
When ''Rescue 01'' was still about from Piper, the aircraft crew radioed the rescue coordination centre that they could already see the fire. ''Rescue 01'' arrived at the scene at 23:27. Three minutes later the first search-and-rescue helicopter, ''Rescue 137'', reached ''Tharos,'' followed by the arrival of ''Rescue 117'', ''Rescue 138'' and ''Rescue 131'' at 23:44, 23:48 and 23:53 hours respectively. ''Tharos'' requested ''Rescue 138'' to evacuate 12 nonessential personnel to make room for incoming casualties. The helicopter transferred them to nearby ''Ocean Victory'', before returning with paramedics.
The search-and-rescue helicopters made unsuccessful sweeps for survivors in the water and ferried injured survivors from rescue vessels to ''Tharos'' and to
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
A civilian
Sikorsky S-61
The Sikorsky S-61L and S-61N are civil variants of the Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King, SH-3 Sea King military helicopter. They were developed and produced by the American helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft.
The commercial version of the Sea King ...
of
Bristow Helicopters carrying a medical emergency team arrived at the scene by 1:20 on 7 July.
At 2:00 another helicopter landed on ''Tharos'' the Offshore Specialist Team from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, with a significant amount of medical equipment. The last survivors were picked up by ''Rescue 138'' from ''Tharos'' at 7:25.
By 8:15, 63 personnel (among whom one survivor who subsequently died and the surviving member of the crew of ''Sandhaven''
's FRC) had been brought ashore. Aircraft were used to search the area of the platform until the afternoon hours.
Casualties and survivors
At the time of the disaster, 226 people were on the platform; 165 died and 61 survived. Two men from ''Sandhaven'' were also killed in attempts to pick up survivors in a fast rescue boat. Of the 135 deceased whose bodies were recovered, the vast majority died from inhalation of smoke and gas, with only four indicating death from burning, and several others from injury sustained from jumping into the sea.
Thirty bodies were never recovered.
Since both the lifeboats and the helideck were impaired by smoke or flames, all the survivors were among those that jumped to the water from various decks or climbed down knotted ropes. Five were the survivors that jumped off the helideck from a height of into the North Sea.
Luckily, the sea conditions were calm on the evening of the disaster. The largest number of survivors (37 out of 61) were recovered by MV ''Silver Pit'' or her fast rescue boat, whose coxswain James Clark later received the
George Medal
The George Medal (GM), instituted on 24 September 1940 by King George VI,''British Gallantry Medals'' (Abbott and Tamplin), p. 138 is a decoration of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, awarded for gallantry, typically ...
, as did Iain Letham of the ''Sandhaven''.
Others awarded the George Medal were Charles Haffey from Methil, Andrew Kiloh from Aberdeen, and James McNeill from Oban. ''Sandhaven'' crewmates Malcolm Storey, from Alness, and Brian Batchelor, from Scunthorpe, were awarded George Medals posthumously.
Aftermath
Controversy exists about whether time was sufficient for a more effective
emergency evacuation
Emergency evacuation is an immediate egress or escape of people away from an area that contains an imminent threat, an ongoing threat or a hazard to lives or property.
Examples range from the small-scale evacuation of a building due to a storm ...
. Systems critical for emergency management such as the
public announcement/general alarm, emergency power, safe haven, and—crucially—the lifeboats, were destroyed or impaired due to poor platform design. Executing the actions described in the emergency response plan became effectively impossible. Additionally, the OIM was perhaps not capable of thinking outside the established procedures and of ordering an improvised evacuation.
It was estimated that the fires had produced flames with a height of about 200 metres and a peak rate of about 100 gigawatts, or three times the total power consumption of the United Kingdom.
Around 670 tonnes of oil were spilled in the accident. On 9 July a slick long and wide was reported.
Force 4 conditions, together with
dispersant
A dispersant or a dispersing agent is a substance, typically a surfactant, that is added to a suspension of solid or liquid particles in a liquid (such as a colloid or emulsion) to improve the separation of the particles and to prevent their sett ...
sprayed from a supply vessel, helped disperse it.
Only two
downhole safety valves failed to close, and five oil wells were left burning. The fires were eventually extinguished by a team onboard ''Tharos'' led by firefighter
Red Adair, who had been asked to intervene by Occidental chairman
Armand Hammer
Armand Hammer (May 21, 1898 – December 10, 1990) was an American businessman and philanthropist. The son of a Russian Empire-born communist activist, Hammer trained as a physician before beginning his career in trade with the newly estab ...
. A relief well was started on 14 July. The wells were capped by 22 July by fitting new valves on top, which allowed introduction of
kill fluids.
The accommodation modules where the majority of those onboard had taken refuge were recovered from the seabed in late 1988. They were transported to Flotta, where they were searched by a team led by twenty officers of
Grampian Police and including divers as well as Occidental,
Department of Energy and
Health and Safety Executive
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a British public body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare. It has additionally adopted a research role into occupational risks in Great B ...
personnel. The bodies of 87 men were found inside.
The remains of the platform were toppled into the sea on 28 March 1989.
The total insured loss of the disaster was about £1.7 billion (£ billion in ), making it one of the
costliest man-made catastrophes ever.
The event had a considerable impact on North Sea oil and gas production. Piper, Tartan, and Claymore were not the only fields impacted, with
Scapa,
Highlander and
Petronella
Petronilla is a Late Latin feminine given name. The name is a diminutive form of Petronia, itself the feminine form of Petronius, a Roman naming conventions#Nomen, Roman family name. Saint Petronilla is an early Roman saint, later interpreted as ...
also having to wait up to 13 months before half production was regained. The total deferred production amounted to of oil.
Inquiry and safety recommendations

The Piper Alpha Public Inquiry was set up in November 1988 to establish the cause of the disaster. It was chaired by the Scottish judge
William Cullen
William Cullen (; 15 April 17105 February 1790) was a British physician, chemist and agriculturalist from Hamilton, Scotland, who also served as a professor at the Edinburgh Medical School. Cullen was a central figure in the Scottish Enli ...
. A variety of sources of evidence were used, including eyewitness accounts from survivors and crews of nearby vessels, data from nearby platforms, the recovery of the deceased, debris collected from the seabed, documentation available ashore, and accounts from 'back-to-back' personnel who had recently worked on Piper Alpha. Highly unusual for an inquiry of this scope was the fact that the entire scene of the accident had effectively disappeared into the sea.
The inquiry decided against the recovery of the process modules from the seabed, due to the time required, the hazards involved, and the low chance that that evidence could actually prove useful for the investigation. The living quarters had, however, been recovered, and this allowed for the collection of key documents to support the investigation.
After 180 days of proceedings extending for 13 months, the report ''Public Inquiry into the Piper Alpha Disaster'' (short: ''
Cullen Report'') was issued in November 1990. It concluded that the initial condensate leak was the result of maintenance work being carried out simultaneously on a pump and related
safety valve
A safety valve is a valve that acts as a fail-safe. An example of safety valve is a pressure relief valve (PRV), which automatically releases a substance from a boiler, pressure vessel, or other system, when the pressure or temperature exceeds ...
. The inquiry was critical of Piper Alpha's operator, Occidental, which was found guilty of having inadequate maintenance and safety procedures, but no criminal charges were ever brought against the company.
The second part of the report made 106 recommendations for changes to North Sea safety procedures:
*Thirty-seven recommendations covered procedures for operating equipment, 32 the information of platform personnel, 25 the design of platforms and 12 the information of emergency services.
*The responsibility to implement was for 57 with the regulator, 40 for the operators, 8 for the industry as a whole and 1 for stand-by ship owners.
The recommendations led to the enactment of the
Offshore Safety Act 1992
The Offshore Safety Act 1992 (c. 15) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which extends the application of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to secure the safety, health and welfare of people on offshore installations. It ...
and the making of the Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations 1992.
Most significant of these recommendations was that operators were required to present a
safety case
One definition of a Safety Case is that it is a structured argument, supported by evidence, intended to justify that a system is acceptably safe for a specific application in a specific operating environment. Safety cases are often required as par ...
and that the responsibility for enforcing safety in exploitation operations in the part of the North Sea apportioned to the UK should be moved from the
Department of Energy to the
Health and Safety Executive
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a British public body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare. It has additionally adopted a research role into occupational risks in Great B ...
, as having both production and safety overseen by the same agency was a conflict of interest.
Civil suit
Occidental and their insurers,
Lloyd's of London
Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is a insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gover ...
, paid survivors and families of the dead a total of $220 million in settlements. Later, Lloyd's and
Elf Enterprise Caledonia Ltd, successors to Occidental Petroleum, brought civil proceedings against a number of contractor companies who were working on Piper at the time of the accident. Based on the argument that the responsibility for the accident should be shared among the platform operator and the contractors working onboard immediately prior to the accident, Elf was seeking to recover from the defendants a part of the monies paid to the injured and the affected families.
Among the companies involved were
British Telecommunications,
Wood Group, and
Stena Offshore.
Giving verdict in what was then the longest civil trial in Scottish history, in 1997
Lord Caplan ruled that two workers who were killed in the explosion, Robert Vernon (who had posthumously received the
Queen's Commendation for Bravery)
and Terence Sutton, were to blame for the accident.
Lord Caplan found that Sutton had failed to tighten the bolts of the blind flange at the suction side of the removed PSV, and that Vernon had put the pump back in operation without checking its status first. Vernon was employed by Occidental and Sutton by contractor Score (UK) Ltd. The finding against Vernon and Sutton was controversial among the families of the victims.
Insurance claims
The disaster led to insurance claims of around US$1.4 billion, making it at that time the largest insured man-made catastrophe. The insurance and
reinsurance
Reinsurance is insurance that an insurance company purchases from another insurance company to insulate itself (at least in part) from the risk of a major claims event. With reinsurance, the company passes on ("cedes") some part of its own insu ...
claims process revealed serious weaknesses in the way insurers at Lloyd's of London and elsewhere kept track of their potential exposures and led to their procedures being reformed.
One of the 1997 rulings by Lord Caplan was that, albeit in principle contractors were obliged to indemnify Elf, Elf's insurers could not claim back monies from the defendant contractors, because Elf had already largely been indemnified by Lloyd's.
Elf and Lloyd's appealed this finding in Scotland to the
Inner House
The Inner House is the senior part of the Court of Session, the supreme civil court in Scotland; the Outer House forms the junior part of the Court of Session. It is a court of appeal and a court of first instance. The chief justice is th ...
of the
Court of Session
The Court of Session is the highest national court of Scotland in relation to Civil law (common law), civil cases. The court was established in 1532 to take on the judicial functions of the royal council. Its jurisdiction overlapped with othe ...
, which decided in their favour in December 1999. Subsequently, the contractors appealed the decision to the
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
in London in November 2001, but their appeal was rejected. As a result, Elf and their insurers were able to recoup £136 million with accrued interest.
Legacy
The accident is the world's worst offshore oil and gas disaster in terms of lives lost. Only the 2010 ''
Deepwater Horizon
''Deepwater Horizon'' was an ultra-deepwater, Dynamic positioning, dynamically positioned, Semi-submersible platform, semi-submersible offshore drilling Oil platform, rig owned by Transocean and operated by the BP company. On 20 April 2010, ...
'' tragedy has caused a comparable impact in the industry.
Survivors and relatives of those who died went on to form the Piper Alpha Families and Survivors' Association, which campaigns on North Sea safety issues.
A lasting effect of the Piper Alpha disaster was the establishment of the
Offshore Industry Liaison Committee, the trade union for oil and gas rig workers. The union, while still in the form of an unofficial committee drawn from different
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...
rigs, organized large strikes in the summers of 1989 and 1990.
Piper Bravo was installed in 1992 to replace Alpha and commenced production in February 1993. A
wreck buoy marking Alpha's remains was installed and lies approximately from Bravo.
Beginning in 1998, one month after the 10th anniversary, professor David Alexander, director of the Aberdeen Centre for Trauma Research at
Robert Gordon University
Robert Gordon University, commonly called RGU (), is a public university in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It became a university in 1992, and originated from an educational institution founded in the 18th century by Robert Gordon (philanthrop ...
carried out a study into the long-term psychological and social effects of Piper Alpha. He managed to find 36 survivors who agreed to give interviews or complete questionnaires. Almost all of this group reported psychological problems. More than 70% of those interviewed reported psychological and behavioural symptoms of
post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a Psychological trauma, traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster ...
. Twenty-eight (or 78%) said they had difficulty in finding employment following the disaster; some offshore employers apparently regarded Piper Alpha survivors as "
Jonahs" – bringers of bad luck, who would not be welcome on other rigs and platforms. The family members of the dead and surviving victims also reported various psychological and social problems. Alexander also stated, "some of these lads are stronger than before Piper. They've learned things about themselves, changed their values, some relationships became stronger. People realised they have strengths they didn't know they had. There was a lot of heroism took place."
In 2013, on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy, trade association
Oil and Gas UK organized a three-day conference in Aberdeen to reflect on lessons learned from Piper Alpha and industry safety issues in general.
In process safety
The Piper Alpha disaster and the ''Cullen Report'' are milestones in the development of
process safety
Process safety is an interdisciplinary engineering domain focusing on the study, prevention, and management of large-scale fires, explosions and chemical accidents (such as toxic gas clouds) in process plants or other facilities dealing with haza ...
. Its effects on the offshore oil and gas industry can be compared with those the
Flixborough disaster had on the onshore chemical and petroleum
process industry in the 1970s. The ''Cullen Report'' put a strong emphasis on the importance of a robust
safety management system (SMS). The requirement for a safety management system to be in place was introduced in British legislation in the wake of Piper Alpha. Elements of
process safety management
Process safety management (PSM) is a practice to manage business operations critical to process safety. It can be implemented using the established OSHA scheme or others made available by the EPA, AIChE's Center for Chemical Process Safety, or ...
that failed on Piper Alpha included:
*
Permit-to-work, and in particular the mechanism of permit handover. The whole accident chain of events commenced due to the attempt to start-up a pump which was actually under maintenance.
* Company
audit
An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon." Auditing al ...
s, which did not pick up on the systemic failings of the permit-to-work system.
The ''Cullen Report'' included a recommendation to shift the regulatory regime to a greater focus on SMS audit rather than on inspection.
*
Contractor management. It had been the first day on the platform for the production operator, who was a contractor and was left on his own without any operating procedures.
*
Management of change. The platform, originally thought for oil production only, was retrofitted to handle gas. The change was not properly thought out and assessed, as the placement of critical gas facilities next to the unprotected control room stood to demonstrate.
*
Asset integrity, by way of
inspection
An inspection is, most generally, an organized examination or formal evaluation exercise. In engineering activities inspection involves the measurements, tests, and gauges applied to certain characteristics in regard to an object or activity. ...
and
maintenance
The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installa ...
.
Safety-critical system
A safety-critical system or life-critical system is a system whose failure or malfunction may result in one (or more) of the following outcomes:
* death or serious injury to people
* loss or severe damage to equipment/property
* environmental h ...
s such as
liferafts, fire pumps, or
emergency lighting do not seem to have received proper attention.
In general, Piper Alpha marked a watershed moment in that it ushered in a greater focus on process safety management and on a risk-based, rather than purely prescriptive, hazard management.
As a result of the tragedy, the Safety Case Regulations came into force in 1992. By late 1993, a
safety case
One definition of a Safety Case is that it is a structured argument, supported by evidence, intended to justify that a system is acceptably safe for a specific application in a specific operating environment. Safety cases are often required as par ...
had to be submitted to the
Health and Safety Executive
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a British public body responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare. It has additionally adopted a research role into occupational risks in Great B ...
for every platform and rig in British waters (including the
exclusive economic zone
An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...
). The safety case must describe and justify the design, inherent hazards and residual risk in the spirit of the
ALARP (as low as reasonably practicable) principle, as well as the means of managing such residual risk. The safety case must be maintained up to date through the lifecycle of the installation.
The safety case regime has been ascribed a measure of success in promoting safer facility design and management of offshore operations in the United Kingdom.
Trade association
Oil and Gas UK linked a significant fall in
lost time injury frequency rate observed since 1997 to the introduction of the regime.
The decrease in the number of accidental hydrocarbon release events in the British offshore oil and gas industry has also been correlated to the new regulatory approach. A study commissioned by the Health and Safety executive found that the regime heightened awareness of risks throughout the industry and set in motion a more structured decision-making process targeting risk reduction efforts, safety management system improvements, and a better
safety culture. According to another source, Piper was the catalyst for a development from an unsystematic, albeit well-meaning, collection of standards and processes to a systematized approach specific to safety.
However, some criticism of the safety case approach has also been voiced, pointing to implementation and communication problems as well as issues with the supporting safety studies.
The industry's cost-cutting initiatives as well as the handling of workers' involvement in the development of safety cases have also been identified as potential factors of degradation of the safety case regime.
The safety case regime has been adopted outside the United Kingdom, both as a regulatory instrument (for example in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
,
Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
, and
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
,
among others) and as a voluntary initiative taken by several oil companies. In the United States, the
American Petroleum Institute
The American Petroleum Institute (API) is the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry. It claims to represent nearly 600 corporations involved in extraction of petroleum, production, oil refinery, refinement, pipeline ...
's Recommended Practice 75 for ''Development of a Safety and Environmental Management Program for Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Operations and Facilities'' was issued, at least in part, in response to the tragedy.
In terms of facility design, some of the ''Cullen Report''
's recommendations have become tenets for the safe design of offshore oil and gas installations:
* Systematic identification and assessment of fire and explosion hazards.
* Analysis of and protection against smoke and gas ingress as well as
survivability
Survivability is the ability to remain alive or continue to exist. The term has more specific meaning in certain contexts.
Ecological
Following disruptive forces such as flood, fire, disease, war, or climate change some species of flora, faun ...
against fire and explosion of a temporary refuge (usually within, and potentially extending to the entirety of, the living quarters), where the crew could muster and wait out the accident, while arrangements for emergency management and/or facility
evacuation are put in place.
* Analysis of escape routes and means of evacuation, with due regards to their survivability, accessibility and
redundancy.
* Analysis of the survivability of safety-critical systems required for emergency management, such as
emergency shutdown valves (in particular those along hydrocarbon risers), primary structural elements, hydrocarbon piping and vessels, fire pumps, firewater distribution and deluge, control and radio rooms, public announcement and general alarm system, emergency sources of power, emergency lighting, all of which failed on Piper, additionally to the aforementioned impairments of escape routes and safe muster area.
These analyses, which are called "forthwith studies" by the ''Cullen Report,'' are now standard engineering deliverables in the design of offshore oil and gas facilities. Quantified risk assessment (QRA) also became more common, particularly in support to ALARP arguments. One effect of these studies was that a rectangular (rather than square) layout became common for new North Sea platforms, to allow for increased spacing between vulnerable areas and major hazard modules. For the same reason, bridge-linked platforms became more common to increase separation from the accommodation module.
Other lessons learnt in design were the importance of
blast walls in protecting safety-critical systems; the need to minimize congestion and promote natural ventilation in process areas, to decrease the chance of explosions; the need to ensure that the temporary refuge
HVAC
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC ) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. ...
system be capable to repel smoke and gas ingress by
positive pressurization and implementation of gas-tight
dampers automatically actuated from smoke and gas detectors; redundancy of critical communication systems, like radio and
public address
A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...
; remote start of
fire pumps; need to optimize the location and fireproofing of riser emergency shutdown valves;
assessment for the need of subsea pipeline isolation valves, to segregate the amount of hydrocarbon available for fire escalation in case of riser or riser valve failure.
The resulting changes in the design philosophy of offshore facilities have therefore been towards an
inherently safer design (ISD) concept.
In the same spirit, companies also sought to decrease the number of operators needed to run offshore facilities, in an attempt to reduce human exposure to major accidents.
The first totally unoccupied (normally unmanned) installation, in the
Amethyst gas field, was commissioned in September 1990.
There is debate as to whether unmanned facilities are actually beneficial in terms of decreasing risk to the workers, given the requirements to transfer personnel to and from the platform (for inspection and maintenance activities), which in itself carries an amount of risk associated to helicopter flights, boating, and boat-to-platform personnel transfer.
Memorials

A condolence banner was gifted in 1989 by the
Victorian Trades Hall Council of Australia, and is now in the
Aberdeen Maritime Museum.
On 6 July 1991, the third anniversary of the disaster, a memorial sculpture was unveiled by the
Queen Mother
A queen mother is a former queen, often a queen dowager, who is the mother of the monarch, reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since the early 1560s. It arises in hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarchies in Europe and is also ...
in the Rose Garden within Hazlehead Park in Aberdeen.
In it are three figures of oil workers, one facing west and representing the physical nature of offshore activities, one facing east and representing eternal movement and youth and the central one, facing north and whose left hand holds a pool of oil sculpted in the shape of an unwinding spiral. It was created by
Sue Jane Taylor, a Scottish sculptor who based much of her work around what she saw in and around the oil industry and had actually visited Piper Alpha in 1987.
One of the survivors was used as a model for one of the figures.
Also in 1991, Scottish composer
James MacMillan wrote ''Tuireadh'', a piece for clarinet and string quartet, as a musical complement to the memorial sculpture.
A memorial stone was erected in 1992 in
Strathclyde Country Park
Strathclyde Country Park is a country park located on the outskirts of Motherwell in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, named after the former Strathclyde region of Scotland. It is often commonly referred to as Strathclyde, or simply Strathy.
Desc ...
to commemorate the men lost from
that region.
The ''Piper Alpha Window'' was created in 1994 by congregation member Jennifer Jane Bayliss for
Ferryhill Church in Aberdeen.
The Oil Chapel in the
Kirk of St Nicholas, Aberdeen was dedicated in 1990 to mark 25 years of North Sea oil. The chapel hosts a
book of remembrance to all those who have died offshore in British waters.
In the media
The incident was featured in the 1990
STV documentary television series ''
Rescue
Rescue comprises responsive operations that usually involve the saving of life, removal from danger, liberation from restraint, or the urgent treatment of injury, injuries after an incident. It may be facilitated by a range of tools and equipm ...
'', about the
RAF Search and Rescue Force
The Royal Air Force Search and Rescue Force (RAF SARF or RAF SAR Force) was a unit of the Royal Air Force (RAF) which provided around-the-clock aeronautical search and rescue cover in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, and the Falkland Islands, from 198 ...
at RAF Lossiemouth, in the episode "Piper Alpha". Coincidentally, the film crew had been documenting the rescue teams at Lossiemouth at the time of accident and were able to accompany the helicopter during the Piper Alpha disaster, filming events as they happened from helicopter ''Rescue 138''.
The disaster was featured in the first episode of the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
television series ''Disaster'', aired in January 1997.
In 1998, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary,
Prospero Productions of Australia released the documentary ''Paying for the Piper''. It was written and produced by Ed Punchard, who was one of the divers that managed to escape the inferno. The film follows Punchard's return to Scotland to confront his past and culminates in a meeting with Occidental officers.
In 2004, ''
National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...
'' featured this incident in its
''Seconds from Disaster'' documentary as the episode "Explosion in the North Sea".
On 6 July 2008,
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...
broadcast a 90-minute play by Stephen Phelps entitled ''Piper Alpha''. Based on the actual evidence given to the Cullen Inquiry, the events of that night were retold 20 years to the minute after they happened.
Also in 2008, to mark the 20th anniversary of the disaster, a stage play, ''Lest We Forget'' was commissioned by
Aberdeen Performing Arts and written by playwright Mike Gibb. It was performed in Aberdeen in the week leading up to the anniversary with the final performance on 6 July 2008, the 20th anniversary.
In 2011, Lee Hutcheon produced and directed ''The Men of Piper Alpha'', a documentary with several interviews to the survivors.
In 2013, on the 25th anniversary of the disaster, the video ''Remembering Piper: The Night That Changed Our World'' was released by British offshore oil and gas industry initiative Step Change in Safety. It incorporates passages from the BBC radio play and artwork by Sue Jane Taylor.
The documentary film ''
Fire in the Night'' was also released in 2013. It was made by Berriff McGinty Films and co-produced by
STV. Producer and cameraman Paul Berriff had been with Sea King ''Rescue 138'' during the filming of the ''Rescue'' series.
In 2017 the episode "Oil Rig Explosion" of the
Smithsonian Channel
The Smithsonian Channel is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its media networks division under MTV Entertainment Group. It offers video content inspired by the Smithsonian Institution's museums, research facil ...
documentary series ''Make It Out Alive!'' focused on the disaster, with interviews to, among others, Geoff Bollands, Iain Letham, Charles Haffey, and Paul Berriff.
In 2018, a special edition of the
''Monopoly'' board game was released to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the tragedy. It was sponsored by a number of companies working in the North Sea offshore oil and gas industry, including majors such as
Shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...
, whose
Brent platforms substituted for the four train station squares. The game release was part of a fundraiser for the maintenance costs of the memorial in Hazlehead Park. The box lid prominently featured Piper Alpha imagery and a "Piper Alpha 30th Anniversary" title, which led the game to be referred to as the "Piper Alpha ''Monopoly''". The reactions of some of the survivors and victims' families were negative, calling the game "callous" and a "sick joke". The game was re-released with a different design to clarify that it was really an oil-and-gas (and not a Piper Alpha-themed) ''Monopoly'' edition.
Also in 2018, the disaster was featured on the
History
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
documentary series ''James Nesbitt's Disasters That Changed Britain''. Testimonials were heard from survivors and relatives of victims.
In 2023, to mark the 35th anniversary, writer Mike Gibb adapted his stage play as a novel titled ''I Had Never Heard a City Cry Before'', a quote from the script.
See also
*
''Alexander L. Kielland''
*''
Ocean Ranger
''Ocean Ranger'' was a semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit that sank in Canadian waters on 15 February 1982. It was drilling an exploration well on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, east of St. John's, Newfoundland, for Mobil Oil o ...
''
*
Mumbai High disaster
*
''Deepwater Horizon'' explosion
Explanatory notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
Volume 1(archived fro
on 2 May 2007, retrieved 18 December 2005).
*
(archived fro
on 8 February 2007, retrieved 18 December 2005).
*
(archived fro
on 25 August 2007, retrieved 18 December 2005).
*
(archived fro
on 25 August 2007, retrieved 18 December 2005).
*
(archived fro
on 25 August 2007, retrieved 18 December 2005).
*
(archived fro
on 3 December 2006, retrieved 18 December 2005).
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Volume 1archivedfrom the original on 6 November 2023, retrieved 20 December 2023).
*
Volume 2archivedfrom the original on 16 December 2023, retrieved 20 December 2023).
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
External links
to all the opinions of the
Lords of the
Court of Session
The Court of Session is the highest national court of Scotland in relation to Civil law (common law), civil cases. The court was established in 1532 to take on the judicial functions of the royal council. Its jurisdiction overlapped with othe ...
at first instance and in reclaiming motions of the civil proceedings
"On This Day" (archived)–
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
article (6 July 1988)
"Piper Alpha Case History" (archived)by the Center for Chemical Process Safety of
AIChE
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a professional organization for chemical engineers. AIChE was established in 1908 to distinguish chemical engineers as professionals independent of chemists and mechanical engineers.
Curr ...
"Piper 25 Conference – Steve Rae"– presentation by a survivor, video on
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
"Piper Alpha 25th Anniversary Rededication and Act of Remembrance"from
Offshore Energies UK's channel on
Vimeo
Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...
"Piper Alpha Disaster" (archived)on
Education Scotland
Education Scotland () is an Executive agencies of the Scottish Government, executive agency of the Scottish Government, tasked with improving the quality of the country's Scottish education system, education system. Education Scotland is respon ...
's website
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