What happened during ‘most gruesome death of all time’ that saw five divers instantly killed on oil rig
Here is the harrowing story of five men who suffered one of the most horrifying deaths of all time.
When asked to picture the most gruesome way to go, most of us will likely imagine medieval torture devices or vicious animal attacks. Neither of which sound like an ideal situation to find yourself in.
Perhaps your mind is drawn to more recent events, such as the infamous 'Nutty Putty cave' incident.
But what if I told you about an incident in 1983 which saw five men meet their death in seconds after a fatal miscalculation 1,000 feet underwater?
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We are of course talking about the harrowing case of the Byford Dolphin accident, a disaster which has since been labelled as causing some of the 'most gruesome' deaths of all time.
What happened on board the Byford Dolphin?
The Byford Dolphin was a semi-submersible oil drilling rig operating in various locations in the North Sea.
The rig may look pretty unremarkable, but it was actually the site of numerous accidents involving workers.
Most notably, the 1983 Byford Dolphin accident.
In November 1983 a group of four British and Norwegian divers - named Edwin Arthur Coward, 35, Roy P. Lucas, 38, Bjørn Giæver Bergersen, 29, and Truls Hellevik, 34 - were joined by dive tenders William Crammond, 32, and Martin Saunders, 30, to complete a deep sea diving mission on the rig.
To safely complete work at such depths, the men were confined to a series of compression chambers during their 28-day stint underwater, which helps alleviate excess build-up of nitrogen in the bloodstream.
In order to travel between the pressurised living quarters and their work underwater, the group of men used a diving bell which was sealed off from other parts of the underwater station.
The men were using a technique known as 'saturation diving' which allows people to work for extended periods of time underwater while avoiding a condition known as 'the bends' when surfacing.
How did the Byford Dolphin divers die?
On 5 November 1983, two of the divers (Bergersen and Hellevik) were returning to the chamber via the diving bell, assisted by dive tenders Crammond and Saunders.
In order to safely move between the water and the highly pressured interior chambers, the men would make sure the diving bell was sealed before moving into the chambers to avoid rapid decompression.
However a fatal mechanical failure would see the bell released too soon, seconds before Hellevik had been able to close the chamber door.
The result? Fatal decompression.
Normally the inner crew chambers are pressurised to nine atmospheres, but the incident saw pressure in the chamber rapidly drop to one within a split second.
Crammond was killed after being hit by the dive bell as it flew away, while the four divers' inside where instantly killed as the nitrogen in their blood turned into bubbles, effectively boiling them from the inside.
Hellevik, who was closest to the partially closed chamber door, would be thrust through a 60cm wide gap, with the pressure expelling his organs.
It's believed the four divers would have died instantly.
Saunders was the only man to survive the horrific incident, suffering from collapsed lungs, fractures in his back and a broken neck.
Topics: History, World News
Brenna Cooper