A horrendous incident on an oil rig saw five divers suffer a gruesome death.
On a tragic day in 1983, the Byford Dolphin oil rig in Norway became the site of one of the most horrific accidents in the history of offshore drilling.
This incident, now infamous as the Byford Dolphin disaster, claimed the lives of five men in one of the most gruesome ways imaginable, per IFL science.
The tragedy claimed the lives of British divers 35-year-old Edwin Arthur Coward and 38-year-old Roy Lucas, as well as Norwegian nationals 29-year-old Bjørn Giæver Bergersen and 34-year-old Truls Hellevik.
Dive tender 32-year-old William Crammond also died, while his colleague, Martin Saunders, survived with serious injuries, per Energy voice.
The Byford Dolphin was a semi-submersible drilling rig operating in the North Sea. Among its crew were saturation divers, professionals who work at depths of 500 feet (152 meters) or more to maintain equipment on offshore oil rigs and undersea pipelines.
Unlike most commercial divers, who return to the surface after a few hours, saturation divers can spend up to 28 days on a single job, living in high-pressure chambers between shifts.
As divers descend, the pressure of the water causes nitrogen gas molecules, absorbed through the lungs, to dissolve into the bloodstream. If a diver ascends too quickly, the gas rapidly forms bubbles, expanding dangerously.
On November 5, 1983, an experienced tender named William Crammond performed a routine procedure on the Byford Dolphin.
He connected the diving bell to the living chambers, safely depositing two divers in one chamber. The other two divers were already resting in another chamber. Suddenly, a catastrophic failure occurred, per Business insider.
The diving bell detached before the chamber doors were closed, causing explosive decompression.
The air pressure inside the living chambers instantly dropped from nine atmospheres to one atmosphere. The explosive rush of air killed Crammond and critically injured his colleague.
The four saturation divers inside the chamber also met a gruesome fate. Autopsy reports indicated that Edwin Arthur Coward, Roy P. Lucas, and Bjørn Giæver Bergersen were essentially “boiled” from the inside as the nitrogen in their blood erupted into gas bubbles.
Truls Hellevik, standing in front of the partially opened door, was sucked out through a narrow opening, which tore his body apart and ejected his internal organs onto the deck.
The disaster exposed severe safety protocol flaws, prompting significant improvements in commercial diving operations and safety standards worldwide.
The incident had a profound impact on the relatives of those involved, who reported received no support or compensation. Initial blame placed on some individuals also caused severe distress.
In 2009, the son of British diver Roy Lucas, Stephen, was awarded a six-figure sum in compensation from the Norwegian Government after a two-year fight to right a 26-year-old wrong.
And he didn’t win alone. The same amount was paid to each of his two sisters, a small victory in a case long marred by silence, frustration, and heartbreak. Still, the 36-year-old didn’t hold back when reflecting on the ordeal.
“We’ve never even received an apology and that’s disgusting. It was December that we were told we did not meet the criteria for compensation,” he said.
“It was then that my sister contacted a solicitor and when push came to shove the Norwegian government decided to review the case.”
The review ultimately swung in the family’s favor. “We ended up receiving a majority vote and now we are being granted the compensation. But it doesn’t matter because no amount of money will be enough,” Stephen stated.
Modern offshore diving legislation and IMCA guidance now focus on addressing “latent failures” in systems to control risks to a level as low as reasonably practicable.
The absence of a suitable interlock on the Byford Dolphin diving system was a significant latent failure that led to the accident.
In response to calls for further investigations by families of divers killed in Norway, the Norwegian government offered a settlement in 2009. The Byford rig itself remained in operation until being scrapped in 2019.
