![]() Five minutes later, the fatal incident occurred. At 04.08, the second of the divers left the bell and the diving supervisor slightly increased the pressure in the bell in order to secure a seal on the door. Pressure in the chamber corresponded to a working depth of 90 metres. The door between the tunnel and the chamber system was then opened, and the divers began transferring equipment to the living quarters. A diver on deck reported to the diving supervisor that the locking mechanism was in place. At 04.01, the bell was connected to the chamber. ![]() Fotnote: Five divers killed on oil rig, The Observer, 6 November 1983.Īn internal report describes the sequence of events on a minute-by-minute basis. The British divers who were helping on deck outside the bell had been working for a total of 12 hours and 48 minutes when the accident happened. Two British divers were resting in the pressure chamber after a nine-hour shift. They had been in the water for almost 2.5 hours. The accident occurred when the bell had just been recovered on board after two Norwegian divers had performed various jobs on the production template for North-East Frigg. Fotnote: NOU 1984: Dykkerulykken på Byford Dolphin, p 5 Comex Norge A/S was the diving contractor, and owned and operated the diving system on board. The rig was working on the drilling and completion of six production wells on North-East Frigg. ![]() Originally named Deep Sea Driller, this unit was delivered in 1973 and became notorious in Norway under that name when it was wrecked off Bergen in the 1970s with the loss of six lives. Fotnote: Byford Dolphin was the first rig built to the internationally-acclaimed Aker H3 design. The special feature of the Byford Dolphin accident was that it occurred above water while connecting the diving bell to the pressure chamber.Ī Norwegian-registered semi-submersible built to the Aker H3 design, Byford Dolphin had been chartered by Elf Aquitaine. That made diving the riskiest occupation in the offshore business. Since oil operations began in the mid-1960s, about 30 divers had died in the North Sea basin as a whole. This incident cost five people their lives, while one was seriously injured. ![]()
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