History’s Worst Oil Platform Disaster
An Aberdeen, Scotland memorial to the Piper Alpha rig workers who died in the catastrophe.
In the late 1980s, oil and gas production were common in the North Sea, off the coast of Scotland.
Rig workers were accustomed to long hours in harsh conditions, but nothing could have prepared the men working on Piper Alpha for the catastrophic series of events that took the lives of nearly three-quarters of the crew one July night.
Interesting Information
The Public Inquiry into the Piper Alpha Disaster, Vol. 1 - Click To Open
The Public Inquiry into the Piper Alpha Disaster, Vol. 2 - Click To Open
Images
Row 1, L to R: View of the Piper Alpha platform pre-disaster from the southeast; Map of North Sea Oil and Gas Fields with Piper close to the number 15; Initial fire on board Piper Alpha before the riser rupture
Row 2 L to R: Smoke from the fire on Piper Alpha before the riser rupture; Close view of the Module B fire 30 seconds after initial explosion; Fire after the riser rupture 20 minutes after initial explosion
Row 3 L to R: Atlantic 21 Fast Rescue Craft (FRC); Module A, the only remaining platform Module the morning of July 7; Remains of main crew quarters, the East Replacement Quarters, after seafloor salvage
All gallery images from The Public Inquiry into the Piper Alpha Disaster.
Sources
Piper Alpha: The Disaster in Detail - The Chemical Engineer
Piper Alpha Disaster: how 167 oil rig workers died - The Guardian
The Piper Alpha and the Deepwater Horizon - The Human Factors of Process Safety and Worker Empowerment in the Offshore Oil Industry: Proceedings of a Workshop
Deepwater aftermath - exploring the parallels with Piper Alpha - TUVRheinland/Risktec
Piper Alpha: Lessons Learnt, 2008 - Oil & Gas UK
The Piper Alpha Explosion and Fire - Parthenon Consultancy Ltd
UK Piper Alpha pair ‘wrongly blamed’ - BBC News