(ticking)
(beeping)
(whispering)
- Every now and again when I'm driving
over that way for family,
those are people 'cause they own the roses out.
This is a beautiful place when all the roses are out.
I just walk around outside, try to put faces to them and
kinda know some of the names there,
and just sit and talk like.
Piper'll never go away.
They'll be there forever.
- Me granddaughter, she done an article
at school on the Piper Alpha.
Says, "Can you tell us a little bit about it."
"Ah," I says, "there's not much to tell ya."
"Did you jump from the rig?"
I says, "Oh yeah."
"Was it high?"
I says, "Oh, it was high."
She says, "How high?"
"Oh," I says, "it was high."
(ocean waves crashing)
- Drove past when the (mumbling)--
- When the black water comes from the depths
of the Northern Ocean, then will be the beginning
of our tribulations.
(ship creaking) (ocean waves crashing)
For as long as man has lived on the borders
of the North Sea, he has intermingled his respect for it
with fear and hatred.
(ocean waves crashing)
Is it too fanciful to imagine that the small sea towns
which border this coast, cower from the sea,
perhaps as if in race memory
of the invaders who came across these narrow seas,
the Vikings.
Or is it, perhaps, an awareness,
that the North Sea gives up its treasure unwillingly?
But the men who have fished it for generations know that,
for them, the North Sea is a widow maker.
(ocean waves crashing) (wind whistling)
(slow-paced orchestra music) (choir singing)
- Nothing remotely like them
had ever been built before.
From the sea bed to the top of the drilling derrick
would be 690 feet.
The steel had to be protected inside and out
by a combination of plastic coatings and electrolysis.
Not something you can do in any old totter's yard.
(slow-paced orchestral music) (choir singing)
- This is one of the most exciting things
that's happened to Europe for centuries.
(slow-paced orchestral music) (choir singing)
- And somehow these cumbersome
steel contraptions had to be set afloat
and towed 110 miles offshore, and to be set upright
and pinned on the ocean bed.
On launching day, nobody could guess what might happen next.
(loud explosion)
It was as much religion as engineering.
(slow-paced orchestral music)
(choir singing)
The structures were designed to withstand waves of 94 feet
and winds of 130 miles an hour.
In the splash areas the impact of a wave,
could be several thousand tons
striking both sideways and downwards at the same time.
Floating cranes had to be designed
to lift into position units that were heavier
and more cumbersome than anything that had
ever been lifted before at sea.
Nobody knew all the answers,
nobody could hope to think of everything.
You could only do your sums and say your prayers.
It wasn't expected though they'd ever turn out
quite like this.
Machinery has bred machinery,
platforms have grown up and out like junkyards on stilts.
- Piper, one of the largest fields
in the North Sea, holds the current world production record
for a single platform.
At the moment, more than a quarter of UK production.
(ticking)
- A vision of hell I thought it was.
The first thing I thought, "God, how can anybody
"work on one of these things?"
Your ship seemed to be quite comfortable in comparison.
Ya know, when you see these guys,
these ants walking around in their hard hats
and their overalls, I have nothing but admiration for them.
You know, if that rig decides to upset you,
there's only going to be one winner.
He's goin' against the man, 2,000 tons of heck,
he's gonna win all the time.
(machinery clanking)
(bass-heavy music) (machinery clanking)
- Everything was hunky dory then.
(laughs) It was good.
Was some cracking times...
before that night.
(even-paced music)
- It was work.
I didn't go to work there thinkin' we were
particularly unsafe.
It was a different environment, but it's an evironment
you soon got used to because a lot of it
was just similar to working on shore.
Except, obviously the getting in there and the getting home.
(even-paced music) (helicopter flying)
- It was 112 miles, so just about an hour,
50 minutes to an hour, depending on
the weather conditions.
You just sat there and either fell asleep or read a book
until you got out to the platform.
(helicopter flying)
- Oh, it was all a new experience then.
I have seen people fly out, step off,
and say, "I'm not, no I can't do this."
I've seen that happen, yeah.
(helicopter flying)
- I always thought, if there was
ever going to be an accident,
it would be the transfer there and back
in helicopter.
But you do think about it.
If anything ever happened, you think once you get on the
platform, you're safe for the fortnight.
Which, obviously I got that wrong as well, so.
Me ju-ju is not appealing, is it?
(waves crashing)
(ticking) (ominous orchestral music)
(muffled speech)
- It's a roughed up life, it is, in the North Sea.
Here we are, far from home.
(crowd talking with one another)
- It was sort of, we're not meant to be there.
You're stuck in the middle of nowhere,
but you're seeing all the rigs around ya,
where people are in exactly the same situation.
(laughing)
There was no way you were to exist if ya didn't get on.
It was as simple as that.
So ya did, ya got on, and ya had a good laugh.
Ya made a laugh of it, because if ya didn't make a laugh
ya probably cried. (laughing)
- Okay, one steak monkey gland.
T. Matson, well done sirloin.
- Well done sirloin.
- Pat, well done.
Well done, Pat.
- The Piper was the main key way for the oil
because the oil pipeline, going back on shore,
came via the Piper.
We took the oil from the Tartan,
we took the oil from the Claymore to more rigs.
And we piped it, then, into the main lines going ashore,
and that's what caused a lot of the problems.
- Quite a few people
didn't like the Piper particularly.
That was the first platform I'd ever been on,
and I thought it was quite good.
The food was good, the accommodation was good,
the work area was good, and I thought it was quite,
to me, quite safe.
(helicopter hovering)
The Piper had just one standby boat, the Silver Pit.
Everyone was trained in firefighting
within the platform itself.
Every week you did your lifeboat drills
where you went to your lifeboats,
and you also, on board, you had all your hoses
and equipment for survival and that respect in firefighting.
(siren blaring)
There's also the Tharos, which was the accommodation rig
next to the Piper.
It was there as a firefighting barge as well.
It had water cannons on board there.
- The Tharos, wallowing only slightly
in a force nine gale, has all the grace and clean cut lines
of a floating building site.
This 30,000 ton barge has not been built for beauty,
but for situations like this.
A blowout, the oil man's nightmare,
and it could happen in the North Sea anytime.
The water cannons on the Tharos can envelop a burning rig,
It won't put the fire out, but it will stop the rig melting.
Below decks there's a hospital and intensive care unit
that can cope with 90 men suffering
from the burns, hypothermia, and broken limbs
that would follow a disaster offshore.
(even-toned music)
- Aboard the platform they don't
talk about safety much.
They don't talk about disasters at all.
They all know it only needs one careless or foolish man
for a North Sea platform to become a flaming torch.
(gun fires) (flare blazes)
- Nice shot, man!
- It was the same on platform that,
in the pluralities safety came first, production second.
But we always said safety only came first
if it didn't interfere with production.
- It just felt like they were looking to
cut course all the time.
When you see now, how much money's involved in oil,
there was probably no need for it.
- Keep it flowing, keep it flowing, pump it out.
(wave crashes)
It was a time bomb waiting to happen.
That was a time bomb.
And it happened.
(water gurgling) (wondrous orchestral music)
(tool buzzing)
(wondrous orchestral music)
(ticking)
(ominous orchestral music)
(door opens)
- It was an exceptionally busy time on that day.
There was a lot of maintenance going on in the rig.
We had the gas module shut down,
and we had to get this gas module back open on it
as quickly as possible.
We knew we had a few days to do it in.
Or we thought we did.
(laughs) Put it that way.
(ominous music)
- This was the first time that they'd
tried to do a shut down, keeping part of the platform
still pumping oil.
It was a live experiment they were doing.
At the end of the day, obviously, it didn't work.
(helicopter propeller spinning)
- The sea wasn't rough, it was a pleasant day out there.
The work went all right.
We didn't have any blockages in that blast machine
as I remember it.
No.
And nobody mixing paint with their horns.
The guys knew they were going to be going across beside us
to sleep that night.
But one in the lodge came to me
he'd just been modded six weeks,
and he wanted the overtime.
And I couldn't think anything to give him,
and then I thought, "Oh, the compressors need
"filled in diesel.
"You can do that, fill the compressors,
"and I'll see if you can stay on here tonight."
Instead of having to go back to his house.
- The contract lads were knocking off from the gas module.
And they came down to the instrument shop,
and I was writing out the lug,
to hand over, because the next day, I was going off.
And I said to them, "Okay lads, yous can knock off"
and I sent them back up, not realizing that I would
never see them again.
(footsteps)
Another 10 minutes and it could've made
the world of difference, they might've survived.
But you don't know that at the time.
Ya don't realize that.
You think you're doing them a favor.
They got...
what wasn't, as it turned out.
(footsteps) (rig buzzing)
(ominous humming music)
(ominous humming music intensifies)
(screeching)
(exploding blast)
(ominous-toned music)
- That was 25 years ago, I could've been witness
as if it were yesterday.
Well, we had a problem which was very much
a routine problem we'd seen a lot of times before.
What we called the condensate injection pump shut down.
We called condensate what the lift pastor called lpg.
Just if you're bagging the blue bottles for your barbecue
while you're on fire.
So we needed to get it going quickly again.
There wasn't a panic about that 'cause the condensate pumps,
from an equipment point of view,
tripped more than any other piece of equipment.
(beeping)
It was just, "Oops, the condensate pump's tripped."
Accepted the alarm.
And then, pump the gas alarms in,
and it just all came in together.
(beeping) (buzzing)
All the alarms are coming in, and every time I'm trying to
stop one, there's another one coming in,
so I couldn't stop the clacks and coming in.
And, the explosion came.
(beeping)
Next second, I'm 15 foot away,
up to the other end of the control.
- It wasn't just a big bang, it was more of a crump.
And ya felt it, right through the rig.
I mean, the instrument container was shaking like,
and you knew it was something big.
(ominous music)
- I can see me self in the control room now.
I can see the smoke and the destruction
at that end of the control room.
My hearing was okay 'cause I could hear
some of the alarms going, and my hip was hurting.
I struggled to walk a bit.
The logical thing to do was then to get out of this morgue,
which is what I did.
When we got outside, we were concerned
'cause the platform alerts hadn't gone off,
which the fire panel used to,
part of the logic, it was to put the alert off,
and that hadn't got out, and the other thing we were
consonant about, we didn't have any firewater.
At this point, Bobby Vae and Robby Cowl both put
a breathing apparatus on to go into the smoke
to try and stop the fire bomb.
Which was the controller operator's job,
but because of my hip injury and this,
I was struggling to move about,
never mind put me headset on.
- And what happened to them?
- They were both killed.
Both of them.
(ominous tones)
- I started making my way to my lifeboat.
And I met two lads from the control room
with gas masks on.
And they said to me,
"Don't go in Roy, the pumps have been blasted to pieces.
"On the initial explosion, they've been taken out."
And he said, "And the lifeboats have been smashed as well."
(fire roaring)
I went on down to the 68 foot level.
(creaking)
As I'm walking along,
you're looking at the sprinkler system
and all you're seeing is drops of water.
So, the valve for the water had obviously opened,
but there was no pressure, there was just
the residual water, dripping down.
From the sprinklers, so we knew then
we were in serious trouble.
(ominous music)
- The only way was down.
One of the riggers found a big rope,
and he tied it at the hand rail and threw it over the side.
Someone just got hold of the life jackets
and I went down the rope with other people.
And managed to get inside, into the Zodiac,
rescue craft of the Silver Pit.
(rig humming)
The Silver Pit was this little boat.
Now and then you'd see to doing this is the sane.
We're used to saying whatever was on here,
you'd never get me on there.
I was at eager pace to get on there.
(distant mumbling)
(fire roaring)
- It was our job to man what we called
the First Rescue Craft.
We had my launch for the first time.
The fire was still very localized.
What happened after that was one of the guys
come running down the spider deck.
The spider deck was a part of the lowest deck
on an oil rig.
Now at that time we just thought the guy was gonna say like,
"Okay boys, we see that you're there,
"can ya hang off, 'cause you may get problems."
Back anywhere we looked at the look on his face
we thought, "This is a man that really doesn't
"want to be there."
Then there was guys comin' down the spider deck.
And most of them were just dressed in their
normal, everyday gear.
And I suddenly realize hey, there's something
really not right about this.
- That night, I was in the Sandhaven.
It was a supply of us all.
But converse it's a safety vessel,
that could do supply work as well, at the same time.
I could see smoke coming out of one end of the Piper.
I knew it was a big problem then,
because there was no lifeboats in the water.
I thought, well men could be in the water.
Even in that decent weather,
not gonna last long in the North Sea.
So I launched the boats, and off the lads went,
and I followed 'em up.
(ocean flowing)
It was Barry Embachelor, Ian Leason,
and Malcolm Story in the boats
that went up to the Piper.
(helicopter flying)
(fire burning)
(fire roaring)
- The initial phase was for all personnel
to go to their lifeboats.
But I think what happened that night was just
completely different to anything that was planned.
But you couldn't get to your lifeboats because
they had to pass through an area
where the fire had taken hold, and it had taken hold
so quickly.
Without the smoke around, I thought
there's no helicopter coming in,
they can't even see to come in.
It was that thick with smoke.
The Tharos, we thought, maybe,
but the bridge between the Tharos and the platform down,
but the Tharos has pulled off, and no way could that
get close 'cause they would put themselves at risk as well.
And so it was confusing and not quite, and that people
weren't quite sure really, where to go next.
(fire roaring)
- Well there hadn't been an abandon ship.
There was no official abandon ship on the Piper that night.
There was, no one said, "Okay everyone, off the rig."
Because there was nowhere to go.
We saw that the divers had actually gone down
a knotted rope,
and they left the knotted rope there.
We said, "Well, we'll follow them down."
I'll be quite honest with ya, my adrenaline
hadn't started going at this point.
But you hadn't been up and seen the actual fire.
I had a life jacket on at the time, so I took it off.
And at this moment, there was a massive explosion.
(loud explosion roaring)
I just went up on the ball of one foot,
kicked off on the other, and spun around.
And then I didn't know what was below me,
I just knew I had to get out of that flame.
Most of the lads who I was standing with, never made it.
And, three dead, that I know of.
Three of us that were in that area,
but a good few of the lads never were seen again.
- I was maybe 50, 60, 70 yards away from the platform,
and the heat was intense, even then.
The lads jumping off the rope,
falling off the rope, jumping over the side,
it was horrific.
(fire roaring)
The legs had these protectors on them
to stop the supply ships bumping against 'em.
I remember one had fallen off from a height
and bumping onto this, and bouncing off his back.
I thought, oh, I can't remember his name,
but I'd met him later, and he'd hurt his back,
but he survived.
- You wonder why people would jump out of a
30, 40 story block window, when fire's at the back.
Well, I know why now.
Because I jumped as well.
I was very lucky to survive.
(water sloshing) (fire roaring)
(plunging) (water bubbling)
(fire roaring from under water)
(bubbling and sloshing)
When I hit the sea, I went very deep, very deep.
You could see, up above, the flames were
lighting up the surface of the sea.
So I started swimming up towards the surface.
You're blowing out bubbles and trying to keep
your lil pace with the bubbles, (laughs) I think,
which is old films that you've seen, (laughs) ya know.
(solemn piano music) (water bubbling)
- What I learned at sea was
you may have got a way for your rig,
you may have got off a sinking ship, yeah?
But once you're in that water,
that's when you really do need all your survival skills.
If you're working in a factory,
your lining bell goes, you go into the car part.
You're safe, yeah?
You get your name tacked off,
the fire brigade arrives, yeah?
That doesn't happen at sea.
Particularly not in a ship, particularly not
in an oil rig, yeah?
That fire alarm goes off, if you can't fight that fire,
if something happens to your rig or happens to that ship,
and you end up in the water,
that's when your survival starts.
That's the beginning of your problems,
it's not the end of your problems,
it's the beginning of your problems.
(fire roaring)
- As I got towards the surface, I was struggling then,
for breath.
I didn't think I was going to make it.
And I start swimming a bit more,
and well I'll blow this bubble business,
(laughs) and, you start panicking a bit, ya know?
And finally I did hit the surface.
(water roaring) (fire blazing)
(water bubbling) (fire blazing)
I looked up and you're under a grill.
There's no other word to describe it.
The top of my head started to cook.
(fire roaring)
Steam was rising off the water.
And I was really in a bad way then.
I thought, I'm gonna die, either
I'm gonna be burnt to death, or I'm gonna drowned.
And I said, "I think I'd sooner drowned," I said.
"I think that's a more peaceful death."
And so I...
plunged myself under the water,
and peddled down under the water.
And I thought I was maybe going under for the last time.
(fire roaring from under water)
It wasn't as if I had an option.
I just had the choice of the one way or the other.
My decision was that I thought drowning might be
an easier death than burning.
(fire roaring)
(even-toned piano music)
I got an image of my younger daughter.
And I'd promised to give her the same type of wedding
as I'd given my eldest daughter, which was a grand affair.
It had gone very well, and as I say,
my youngest daughter, she'd said, "Look,
"I'd like a wedding like that."
And I'd promised, oh I said, "You can get a wedding
"like that, no problem."
And, this sort of clicked with me,
and I said I've got to survive this.
(child laughing)
I knew I had to push through the barriers
and make this happen. (child laughing)
(water bubbling) (slow-paced music)
When I hit the surface again, and I was a bit further away
from the rig and the flames were curling up a little,
as you got further away from the rig.
The currents were taking me away as well, thank goodness.
And I started swimming then.
I noticed a body quite close.
He had a life jacket on.
I didn't realize that he was, and I thought it's someone,
I'll go over and see how they are like.
And I swam over towards him and realized,
he was face down still and he was not moving at all.
And, I realized he was dead.
He had a life jacket, which I didn't have now.
And I thought, I can't steal his life jacket,
I just couldn't do that, I couldn't take it off him.
I said, what I'll do is I'll rest against it,
rest against it on his back.
And I didn't want to lift him up to look who it was
because...
you knew it could be someone ya knew.
Excuse me, I'm sorry about that.
And ya didn't want to...
ya didn't want to, you wanted to treat him with respect.
(water bubbling)
And I lent on him as I say, and it gave me a respite.
Even now I feel a little guilty about doing that.
(fire roaring) (even-paced piano music)
My strength started building up again a bit,
and then I heard voices shouting me.
And it was lads who were clinging to
a quarter of a lifeboat.
And so I let go of the body,
and swam over to the life boat.
(fire roaring) (water lapping)
There was about five of us on this bit of life boat.
One of the lads, Eric, a French lad,
he was in a very bad way, he was badly burned
and you could see that just looking at him.
And then we, we're looking around to try and find
a way to survive and again.
And, the Silver Pit, we were waving like mad,
it went past us, waving like mad and never saw us.
And then it came back, going the other way,
and it saw us then.
They came up to us and dragged us on board.
At that point, I felt even euphoric because we'd survived.
We've actually lived through it.
Ya didn't realize just how many people that had gone,
in that night, ya know.
(fire roaring)
(even-paced piano music)
We look back on that now and say that was day one
in our life, a new life.
That's the way some of us look at it, ya know.
(even-paced piano music)
(flames roaring)
- Filing the night air.
You were hearing explosions.
I could only describe it as a, kind of like a staccato.
Ya know, bop bop bop.
(explosions popping) (fire roaring)
Maybe a couple of explosions, and then a pause,
and then an explosion, and then regular pause.
(distant explosions) (piano music)
But I mean to think that like hey,
we didn't have a choice here.
We have to do, we have to get them on the rescue craft.
We have to get them to safety.
(helicopter propellers whirring)
Men were screaming.
At the time you thought to yourself, but I have to do this.
I really have to get ya off this life raft
and get ya somewhere safe.
(helicopter flying) (piano music)
At one time there was a massive double explosion above us,
and I honestly thought for me, this was it.
I thought this, ya know, we're going out.
Ya know, I thought to myself, I'm gonna die here.
But like everything else, I split-secondly,
you're still here, you've survived, you're here.
And that was at the time, I think it was the diver.
I watched the diver swimming towards us.
He went down, and I thought, we've lost them.
Then they went back up again.
And I thought great, and they were slow coming
'cause they're still trying to push the waters
and he's still swimming.
He goes under for the second time.
And I thought, man right.
The he bobs up again, eh?
Then he swims and he's almost right at us.
And the man, he went down for a third time,
and I don't know what got me, but there's an old seaman's
idea that says if you go down for a third time,
you'll never come up.
I don't know where that ideas comes from,
but I remember sitting there thinking.
And what I end up doing is thinking,
I shove my hand under the water.
Wasn't holding an expectation.
But somehow, I managed to come up with this guy
with the head of the hair.
Then he asked me, I remember, like that.
Almost the minute he stayed up here
above the water, Jimmy Clark, Andy Kyle
grabbed him under the
armpits, and we unceremoniously
hauled this guy on board.
(helicopter hovering) (even-paced orchestral music)
It was Eric.
Sadly, out of the 36 guys that we had rescued
unfortunately, Eric didn't make it.
(helicopter hovering) (orchestral music)
(footsteps) (ominous music)
- Off shore nights, it's horrendous.
We're all doing the same, trying to get off.
That's when the ref, occasionally in football,
(mumbling).
- There's dulling passenger lights
that usually light up the passageways.
Right along to head up the stairs to the canteen area.
Seen some guys with their snorkels on
and a mask, heading out the door.
Telling everybody to stay in the canteen area.
By the end, it was all smoke and everything upstairs
was amiss, the windows breaking, glass and ever.
Thought I only went back out to look for my painter.
But he wasn't in the first hall, he'd already been
inside the canteen.
And you couldn't get in the door
because there're heaps of guys standing around it.
And then again, if I had gone in the canteen,
I wouldn't have been here today.
(fire roaring) (yelling)
- You're going up and down, trying different doors,
and we'd just like, crack the door,
and you could hear the roar of the fire.
(fire roaring and crackling) (muffled speech)
Every door we tried was the same.
That's when all the lights went out.
(powering down)
Just working in the floaters, it's like crikey,
I wanna get off this.
(suspenseful music) (muffled yells)
- Boys, this way!
- This is when I bumped into me roommate, Bill.
I just didn't recognize him, his face was black.
(suspenseful music)
- Somebody on the stair, I could tell, told them,
that they've been out on the pipe deck,
and it was, as far as I was concerned, it was clear.
It was just smoke coming from about the skip.
He said okay, I've told them guys upstairs earlier
that it was clear down here, but they didn't want to
come down, now just lead on, lead on, he said.
So we just took off along the passageway.
(orchestral music) (yelling)
- He was making his way down different levels.
Some parts people get down the stairs,
other parts it was on fire.
(ominous music)
And we had to go along the beam, down a column.
Ya know, just sliding down and walking in.
Jumping about different areas of the rig.
(yelling)
I'm a steeler as my trade, and I'm used to
walking along the beam.
And Bill, he was a painting foreman.
It wouldn't have been so easy for Billy.
He come down like a goon.
He supported you on it so...
he's your friend for life, now isn't he.
(wind blowing)
- Boris in a panther group, and he threw it over
he's about going down the rope, and I said,
"Aye, what are you doing?"
- I get down the rope, into the sea...
(water raging)
it didn't feel cold at this time,
and I've fell in the sea before.
I think I could've swim in it all night
after getting off that.
Then Willie's climbing onto the rope,
he's starting to calm down.
And I thought, he can't swim.
(water raging) - Help!
Help!
(distant yelling)
One minute he was in the water, the next minute
he's hanging in the air, like a bell ringer,
going up and down.
(muffled yelling)
- For the spills down I had to my feet touch when I stopped
and just held on and bodies swimming just out from me,
shouting, "Come on Bill, come on!"
And I said, "Ah, I can't swim."
No no, and he kept treading water, watching me.
Another boat came 'round, one of the first rescue craft.
So I let go of him when they came near me,
I let go of him and they just hooked me in.
(fire roaring)
(helicopter flying)
- I had to pull away from the rig 'cause it was too hot.
I was at the back of the bridge.
Which was, I just know that maybe 40 meters to the ship.
And then a good, another couple hundred meters to the rig.
And I couldn't bear the heat through the glass
in the back of the bridge.
It was a tremendous heat.
(fire roaring)
The Malux had already picked some men up.
As they came away from the rig, the coksen,
Brian Bachelor, was one of me best buddies.
He saw another couple of men coming down the bull kerzes.
So we turned around and went back to pick these up.
Well one of them fell in the water, they picked him up.
The second one, when he got down to the low,
which was about 20, 30 foot off the water,
he wouldn't let go.
(fire roaring)
Oh it was a tremendous noise.
Tremendous hiss and,
then bangs and more explosions.
And a (makes shushing noise).
Terrible noise.
There must've been a big pocket of gas,
underneath the rig, that was just sitting there,
and a spark must've got down to it,
and it just came down onto the water.
The boat was there, then the boat was gone.
I kept on calling, calling and calling on the radio.
"Answer me, come on Brian, come on Rescue One.
"Where are ya?
"Come on, answer me."
Of course, there was no answer.
Because they weren't there.
(ominous roaring)
- Even those shots I have seen on television since then,
seeing the amount of flame their was then,
and the timescale,
and I think to myself, I was still on that then,
with all that fire going on.
I often wonder how I ever managed to survive it.
How any of us managed to survive,
being on the platform that long.
Timescale now, I can't actually put a figure to it.
People were just milling along thinking,
where should we go, what should we do.
The galley area was where everyone was sort of congregating.
I just thought there's no point waiting for things.
I ought to see for myself.
If I can get off, I was looking after me by that time.
(metal clanging)
- How were you feeling at that time?
Did you realize-- - Cut me self.
I realized how sadish it was.
It's like, how am I gonna get off of here?
There was no obvious way of getting away from the platform
with not knowing, you were boxed in.
You were feeling in a spot is obvious that it wasn't
a place to be.
there was a guy sitting next to me, he had a torch.
He said, "It's all insanity, we need to get outside."
(fire blazing)
- I started thinking about going up to the heli deck
to get away from the smoke.
That was about the time, I think, an explosion came.
(large muffled explosion)
(ominous music)
That was the same time that lots of people
who were up there themselves, decided to jump,
and some people jumped from the heli deck.
(ominous music)
- We were at the platform for the heli deck,
which I learned later on, it's 175 feet from the sea level.
We were dove under fellas.
And what we happened to them, for they're
trying to do something to help them.
They was just standing, looking up at us waving to them.
(metal creaking) (flames blazing)
Walked across the heli deck, trying to will go
what I was gonna do, and there was a fella
just standing, staring.
The walk passed as much as you, you kinda stand in,
I said, "You oughta try and get off."
And he just looked at us.
Never said anything, just looked at us.
Looked straight to us,
and he walked away into the smoke again,
never seen him again.
(fire blazing)
- Decided to go up onto the heli deck.
Just as soon as we got over to that side,
the major explosion, the 36 inch paper, I think was there,
fractured, and that's when the huge fireball
engulfed the rig.
(fire roaring)
You just didn't know what it was, but ya just
instinctively knew that God,
something terrible has happened.
(fire roaring)
(metal clanking)
- Did you think, I'm gonna die here?
- Oh yeah. Yeah.
I said a few prayers, but...
can I just stop there a second, yes.
(clears throat)
Okay.
Yeah, it was, sorry--
- Did you--
- I thought we were doomed.
I really did.
I said a few prayers.
And it was a huge explosion.
And it blew the end of this cabin off,
so there was an escape route, but at the same time,
there's a big hole opened in the floor,
and I don't know what happened to the two guys
that were there.
To me, they just disappeared.
I think they actually went through the hole, but...
(sighs)
Can I just stop again? Sorry.
(fire roaring)
- One of the guys I'd worked with,
he'd been off and he'd been in his summer holidays.
He says to me, "God, it's such a good holiday."
With his kids and that.
And, ya know, he came offshore
with happy memories of his family.
- Did he make it? - No.
I met his wife a couple times now, but he,
I had told her what happened.
And I think she was glad, we were there together.
- That's a difficult thing to say.
- Oh, I've totally not said it for 24 years or so.
(distant fire burning)
(solemn music)
You'd go one yard one way or one yard the other way,
and it may have been me.
- The explosion had cleared the smoke somewhat for a while.
It was either stay there and get fried or jump,
not knowing what was below.
It didn't really seem to matter at the time,
ya know what I mean?
So thankfully, what was below was water.
(solemn music)
- It was like down on your knees.
I think I was just trying to get a rest or trying to think.
I even spoke to me wife at the time.
I says, "Oh no, I'm not gonna get stuck on here.
"I'm gonna get off."
And that's what I said to me wife.
Just trying to think what to do next,
just stepped out of the heli deck, into the water.
- I'd ran over to the north side of the platform.
And had to look over and I took my life jacket off,
and threw it, out in front of me, and I took two steps
'cause there's a safety net around the heli deck.
I took two steps off, or two steps, and jumped off.
And just, I jumped off, and I just thought to myself,
I says, "What the fuck have I done?"
(water sloshing) (solemn music)
(fire burning)
(helicopter flying)
- The Zodiac took the Tharos,
and they're lifting it out of the water,
and as it was lifting off, all you could see was
what was left of Piper.
It was...
sorry, can I,
it was horrendous.
It was,
I thought, I honestly thought I must be the only one
that survived that.
- You all right man?
(helicopter flying)
- As the night wore on, consciously we were finding
less and less guys.
(fire roaring)
The last time that we went in the rig,
the world just seemed to be on fire.
The noise was absolutely deafening,
I could not begin,
if you could imagine,
if you could imagine a blowtorch
and then magnify the sound of that blowtorch
maybe three, 4,000 times,
and you'll get an idea of the noise.
(flames roaring)
- It was a coffin in hell!
That's the only way I could describe it.
(helicopter flying)
(fire burning) (helicopter flying)
Never forget that noise.
(fire roaring)
I'll never forget that noise.
(fire burning)
- It must've been an hour, I'd been going
around the platform trying to find a way off.
I think it was getting to the stage of being
quite fatalistic by that time.
The platform was beginning to break up.
I could hear the gratings breaking.
The noise, it's like a eerie noise of things
just creaking and grinding and, that's if they were,
if this was, the welding was melting.
(metal creaking)
Supports gave way.
The area we were on actually tilted.
Everyone just shook hands.
And you know, we were sort of saying
that was it.
We were just shaking hands and saying, "This is the end."
(roaring)
I thought we've got to do something, go somewhere,
do something.
Keep trying at least, 'till we get away from this.
I came out of it, this tools door,
and that's when I could see clear air.
That crane operator dropped the pipes onto the deck.
And they were creating a bridge to walk along.
I could see this guy at the end of these pipes,
he'd been walking along the pipes and jumped off
into the sea and I thought, I'm going the same way.
That's where I'll go.
(solemn orchestral music)
The deck was very, very hot.
It was hot to the touch.
I could feel it through my feet.
It definitely was melting.
(solemn orchestral music)
I had my life jacket on and I had my survival suit on.
And I stood looking down.
And I couldn't really see the sea,
if there's any obstructions at all,
you should always do it before jumping in
from any distance at all.
Hand across the life jacket, hand over your nose
to stop the water going too far up.
I went to jump, but as I was doing that,
someone from behind said that his feet were on fire,
and gave me a shove.
(slow-paced orchestral music)
I just remember going head over heels and thinking
I'm getting away from the flames, but I'm going to
break my neck hitting the water now.
But I don't even remember hitting the water.
(body plunging into water)
(flames roaring)
I came up on my back, marveling at how warm the water was.
(fire roaring)
I came across a petition floating.
So I managed to pull myself onto that,
and paddle away from the platform using some trainers
which were floating around.
I was just thinking then, thank God for that,
I'm away from that inferno.
Away from the smoke, which was so, ya know,
I think the smoke was as bad as the heat.
But to be in clear air, floating away from the platform
was a great relief.
The trainers were floating by, that's what I used to start
paddling away.
And also boxes of cigars, and all of us to smoke cigarettes.
Having inhaled all that much smoke, I thought,
a pack of cigarettes seemed dull.
I'll start smoking cigars. (laughs)
(ominous music)
(distant rumbling) (slow-paced orchestral music)
- You could hear the rig and its death throws.
And it was all a big moaning of
metal as it sort of melted and was bending and
it wasn't doing it silently, you could hear the noise.
It was like the big (groaning), ya know, it was a,
well I can't get anywhere near it, but
it's a sound that'll be with me forever.
It was just the death of the platform, that was,
it was here and there like.
- And then one big chunk just, like slow motion,
just went.
And all you saw was legs.
And the end back of the rig, still stuck up, burning.
And realizing what was on the sea bed,
all them men.
- I don't know if they were still alive at that point.
But, anyone who was remaining there
that was them, right down to the bottom of the sea.
Aye.
There was a lot of folks.
A lot of lads I knew there.
(sighs)
- I thought I'd just see it floating,
and everybody be, kinda saved.
But it had just went straight under.
(sighs)
(fire burning)
(ocean water sloshing)
- Do you regret seeing that now?
- Yeah.
Yeah, I should never have stood and watched it.
I don't suppose that's something I'll never forget.
Thank God of one thing, all the painters were
off the rig for that night.
(helicopter flying)
Thank God they were all off, except the one Lee.
- Can you remember the painter's name?
- Shawn Glen Denning.
From Breeham.
At least I'd like to think they wouldn't have to
get the body off of there.
(muffled speaking)
- Okay, it's all right, just a bit of water,
that's fine.
- I'm not sure the number of calculated.
I believe it's about 150.
(mumbling)
- How it is, but I'm not sure yet.
We haven't had a few numbers.
(muffled speaking)
(slow-paced orchestral music)
(helicopter propellers spinning)
- The rescue's here at one.
Thanos, which is the next aircraft you can test
for evacuations?
- Whiskey one three eight, we'll be inbound
in about 10 minutes somewhere out there.
(helicopter flying) (slow orchestral music)
- I don't remember any of the folk I was with
recognizing anybody from the ambulances.
And as time went on, and the long gaps developed,
sadness and a bit of despair set in.
(slow orchestral music) (helicopter propeller going)
- And then, what came, no more helicopters.
It was a kind of stunned silence.
And then groups started forming.
Crying.
Numb.
What do we do now.
(slow orchestral music)
Gradually folk just drifted away.
And by maybe five o'clock, half past five,
all was quiet.
(slow orchestral music) (waves crashing)
(fire roaring)
- My wife didn't find out til after nine
that I'd survived.
I (mumbles) before the time, and she says, "All they kept
"saying was (scoffs) that I'm missing, presumed dead."
But thankfully they said I was missing but I wasn't.
And I'm definitely not dead.
- When you got ashore and off the helicopter,
you could see wives and everything,
looking for their husbands.
Aye, it was grim.
At that point ya realize that you'd truly survived.
I was burnt, yeah.
My head was badly burned, and my hands were burnt.
And my back had a slight burn on my back as well.
There happened to be a meeting in Birmingham
of all the burns doctors in the country.
They dropped everything, and they came up.
And they were there to treat us.
I can't thank them enough for that.
- It was me and Roy Kidd, we were just in a ward.
There wasn't any charring of the skin, on my arms,
so there was no direct contact with flames,
it was just the heat radiation that was coming off the rig.
And they reckon it was actually,
happened during the fall that hard.
I just,
wanted to see my mom, my sister.
I was told they were on their way to the hospital, so
I just kinda kept going till I seen them.
And then, they come in.
- What was that like?
- Ah, well, amazing, amazing, you know?
See my mom's face.
(machine beeping)
- You must've, unfortunately,
lost some friends that night.
How are you managing to cope with that?
- There's two friends I work with that have not been seen.
These lads has got families now, ya know?
But as we was with injuries and that, at least we get to see
our families.
You feel sorry for your friends you've lost.
It's just, it's one of them things.
Can't be helped.
- Okay.
- In the hospital, the people that was in the ward
where I was wanted to laugh.
I don't know, it was, the point was being alive.
Everybody was trying to cheer each other up.
But it was like, we're part of this together.
- How've ya been?
- Good, yes please.
- Cheers now.
- You're welcome, cheers.
- It's been a good friendship.
It's just, for some reason, we meet up every year.
We know what each other's survived.
And we know what each other's been through.
On occasions, the Piper Alpha meet in Cromwell
for a beer, a very small, that's what it's about.
- Pose a toast, right?
- Well-- You do it.
- See you next year.
- Next year. - Same old thing.
Meeting again, about 25 years or so.
- At least for the next 25.
- Just progress, 25.
- God willing. (glasses clink)
There ya go, there ya go.
(slow-paced orchestral music)
- I hasn't been back to sea afterwards.
And one of the ships that was over there was a guard ship
for the Piper Alpha, but like them, it stopped being
a rescue vessel and more a guard ship.
And the heat shield was there.
And it kinda reminded me of a squat ugly crab.
Ya know, where these two bend.
And, we hated this thing.
You hated this thing because it caused so much misery.
You didn't want it to be there, you wanted it wiped
from the face of the Earth.
And yet, I was also there when they brought
the Piper Alpha down.
They demolished it.
And I manned it coming down,
and I manned it, the sea swallowing it up,
the big wave, the sea swallowing it up,
and then, everything was done to normal.
But then I remember thinking,
but there's nothing there anymore.
(sea rolling)
I hated it for being there.
But when they demolished it, you hated it
for not being there because there was nothing there
that said something terrible, something, a great tragedy's
happened here.
(sea spraying)
(slow-paced orchestral music)
(train moving)
(slow-paced orchestral music)
(seagulls calling)
- The 40 guys and the rescue craft
that night, were awarded the George Medal.
We accepted the medal when the Prime Minister.
Everybody in the Silver, and everybody in the
rescue craft that night, deserved the George Medal.
(slow-paced orchestral music)
Even after 25 years, I still live with the Piper Alpha.
It's always gonna set with me, it's always gonna be there.
I can't get away from that, there's no point in trying,
and I wouldn't want to now.
I wouldn't want to forget about the Piper Alpha.
(train running) (slow-paced orchestral music)
- Piper'll never go away.
There's always a reminder.
I wasn't a good boy the first year.
Drinking, dicking off.
Then I started digging a hole in the garden.
And I was thinking, misses asking away for what's going on,
she's just leave him.
Just got a spear and started digging.
I think if I tarry off on digging I could just see a cross
at the top of it.
Then I took to the drink.
That carried on for nearly a year.
To try and deaden it, forget it.
It wouldn't go away.
And I know in that sort of voyage helped,
but not the other one.
It took them a long time to get me,
but they kept asking for me.
But at the end of the meetings, I didn't have much to say.
They said that would help, talking it out,
but it didn't.
And then, Sue Jane came along.
And that helped, yeah.
(marking)
(drawing)
(even-paced orchestral music)
(drawing)
She had been attending the meetings
to see if she could get somebody to go and
pose immortal for her like.
I said, "All right, I'll do it for nothing."
And that was it.
(knocking)
- Hi Bill! - Oh, hello darlin'.
It's so good to see you.
She never asked me nice,
just wasn't.
Ah, that was good therapy.
(slow-paced orchestral music)
Ah great to see the finished thing like that.
There was quite a crowd there that day
when they unveiled it and all.
Yeah.
- That was a sad day. - Yeah.
- See, it was easy to speak to you
'cause you're yourself there.
And there's no bunch of people sitting around.
- Yes.
Just us talking about it, together, and having good times.
- Especially talking about it.
- Yes. - Yeah.
- 'Cause we did talk about it a lot.
- Mm, we did.
And how does it feel like when you're
looking at the central figure?
- Oh yeah. - Yeah?
Does it bring it all back to ya?
- I said, she could've gave me a smaller nose.
(laughing)
(slow-paced orchestral music)
- It just seemed such a waste of life,
all those people.
I went back out there again and worked back off shore
for another 12 years after the Piper, I think.
Maybe I laid the ghosts to rest there.
I've given up smoking cigars, for the time being.
(muffled recording)
(laughing)
- Aye!
Yes I do recognize people here now.
And there's me!
My goodness, that's me there!
(laughs)
(small tones)
Yes, sometimes I think about them and
they're always the same age, ya know,
they're always as they were.
Ya can't imagine them getting old, ya know.
It's just, it's how you've always knew them, like and
that was the case.
They stay young in your mind
while you grow old.
(slow-paced piano music)