The backgrounds of many of those involved speaks volumes for the professionalism shown in this video. The Crew of the Tharos and especially the members of the Diving Team were handpicked men. Mostly ex Royal Marines and Royal Navy Clearance Divers and amongst them some exceptional Civilian divers and supervisors. Remember this video was filmed many hours after the explosion The crew of the Tharos had responded immediately to what was by any standard a catastrophic event. It was not there job to do this, they fortunately just happened to be there. They were offered a helicopter evacuation shortly after it happened but most chose to stay behind. Many present and many shown in this video have since been involved in other noteworthy marine rescues and salvage operations. Some came back and took part in ongoing body recoveries and the subsequent salvage of the accommodation module containing many of those who perished. I was very proud to be amongst them. None received any recognition.
This must have been as close to hell on earth as you can get, the terror these guys must have been in is unimaginable. Tremendous bravery and courage from the rescue teams, and those who were in the vicinity and helped out. I have huge admiration for all involved and their calm approach to what was a horrific incident. My thoughts and prayers to all involved and their friends and families, so many lives changed forever on the 6th of July 1988.
12 years after PA i started my 20 year offshore career. PA was always in everyones mind and every year on the anniversary we put a wreath in to the sea with a minutes silence. One offshore family. ❤
I am From the Petro-Chemical Industry in Australia Manufacturing Iso-Butanol... N Iso-butanol and Iso-Octanol.. from Synthetic gas 50% Hydrogen/Carbon Monoxide ... Propylene and Heptane.. we had an Incredible Clearance to work System in place BUT it failed on Saturday Morning at Shift change resulting in Hot work being carried out in the wrong Place (Oxy-Cutter) A tank that had a Nitrogen sweep on it was turned of for some reason resulting in Oxygen contamination in the gas space ... BOOM.... 20.000 lts of an organic cocktail went up , tore the Tank off its foundation .. resulting in 5 deaths and many injuries during an Annual shutdown I was driving back from Queensland when i heard it on the radio ... Me !!! I was a Shift Manager for ICI Australia... thanks for reading .... foot note we use to use Piper Alfa in our Safety Training video's...
Pilots dignified but as you watch many men were suffocation or burning in very bad and horrible ways trying to escape. A horrible night and days that followed, I know as I worked in the recovery of bodies, raising the accommodation block and finally the sinking of Piper Alpha. 25 years and I still see the bodies and scenes as if it was yesterday.
Hi Lee, do you have an email address I could contact you on? We're making a documentary about the survivors of the Piper Alpha disaster, and would like to run a few ideas past you. Would really appreciate you getting in touch! Thanks
tomcatter11 This TV series was an inspiration to me as a child, and remains inspirational to me to this day. I wanted very much to follow in the footsteps of the SAR pilots and crews. Wasn’t to be, but I did visit the Sqn as a child (they hosted a visit for me) and I will always remain in awe of those on the SAR force.
Lee, That must be so traumatic. For some reason, humans seem to have 'Photographic memories' when it comes to things like this. As a child, I saw a few road accidents, including a woman being hit and flying through the air and spinning.. She survived. But in far more serious events, it must be very difficult to come to terms with the memories.
My brother was actually on the piper that night he came back a different person it changed all our life’s and not for the better not a days goes by were we don’t think of all the boys who didn’t make it every year on the 6th of July is extremely hard for all of us as a family
I am From the Petro-Chemical Industry in Australia Manufacturing Iso-Butanol... N Iso-butanol and Iso-Octanol.. from Synthetic gas 50% Hydrogen/Carbon Monoxide ... Propylene and Heptane.. we had an Incredible Clearance to work System in place BUT it failed on Saturday Morning at Shift change resulting in Hot work being carried out in the wrong Place (Oxy-Cutter) A tank that had a Nitrogen sweep on it was turned of for some reason resulting in Oxygen contamination in the gas space ... BOOM.... 20.000 lts of an organic cocktail went up , tore the Tank off its foundation .. resulting in 5 deaths and many injuries during an Annual shutdown I was driving back from Queensland when i heard it on the radio ... Me !!! I was a Shift Manager for ICI Australia... thanks for reading .... foot note we use to use Piper Alfa in our Safety Training video's...
II am From the Petro-Chemical Industry in Australia Manufacturing Iso-Butanol... N Iso-butanol and Iso-Octanol.. from Synthetic gas 50% Hydrogen/Carbon Monoxide ... Propylene and Heptane.. we had an Incredible Clearance to work System in place BUT it failed on Saturday Morning at Shift change resulting in Hot work being carried out in the wrong Place (Oxy-Cutter) A tank that had a Nitrogen sweep on it was turned of for some reason resulting in Oxygen contamination in the gas space ... BOOM.... 20.000 lts of an organic cocktail went up , tore the Tank off its foundation .. resulting in 5 deaths and many injuries during an Annual shutdown I was driving back from Queensland when i heard it on the radio ... Me !!! I was a Shift Manager for ICI Australia... thanks for reading .... foot note we use to use Piper Alfa in our Safety Training video's...
I work offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Both PA and Horizon are horrible reminders about when things go wrong. When people say "safety regulations are written in blood," this is why.
For those of you who are not familiar with the North Sea it is a very very hostile work environment. These men had a choice stay where they were and burn or jump and freeze. God bless them all!
I just watched a video on this incident in which they said two towers pumping oil to PA kept doing so after the rig’s explosion because they weren’t getting permission to stop which would have been extremely expensive. Finally the other towers stopped pumping without that permission, as the PA’s fire kept growing. The level of greed… outrageous. RIP to these men and bless the rescuers and those that survived!
Offshore safety guy from the Broch (Fraserburgh) - much of the procedures we work with now were borne of this disaster which is still raw to much of the local community. God rest their souls
The fire is so bright in this footage that it hurts my eyes just looking at it on a screen. I can’t begin to imagine how intense it would have been in person.
I was on the first Nimrod (Rescue 01) scrambled to the incident and was on the radar that night. I remember asking the TacNav for an electronic cue to the PA shortly after takeoff from RAF Kinloss, so I could concentrate my search around it. The Canadian co-pilot told me he could see a bright orange glow on the nose, when we were 80 nautical miles away. That’s when we knew it was going to be a major incident. When we arrived on scene (first airborne SAR asset there), we descended down to low level (500’) to assess the situation and the Captain decided to fly by the rig to see what was going on visually and to see if there were survivors in the water we could drop our 10 man life rafts to. As we flew past the PA at about a quarter of a mile we could feel the heat through the aircraft. And when I had my window blind down, it was as light as day. Shortly after, we decided that our best tactic was to climb to a higher altitude to identify and control all the incoming rescue helicopters and coordinate communications between all surface and rotary assets, as well as providing regular updates to Edinburgh Rescue at Pitreavie Castle. A night to remember.
Fascinating . I presume that was a series about SAR and they just happened to be filming that night ? I'm sure all RAF pilots must go to an "Accent School" becasue they all sound the same , inflection and all !
Interesting you say that about the accents ! All RAF aircrew (not just pilots) who speak on the radio are taught to convey messages clearly and concisely using standardised terminology where possible. However there was nothing standard about the PA SAR incident and it was testament to the professionalism of all the crews (including civvie helos and radio operators on rigs and ships) that the incident was handled as well as it was in the challenging and novel circumstances. The Nimrod was Rescue 01, and on the video you can hear the dulcet tones of my pal Martin as well as Gary, one of our pilots and a Canadian exchange officer. Both top guys. That was a night forever seared in my memory. RIP to all those who didn’t make it.
@@thefox6181 Well I was talking about accents not really radio discipline/enunciation . It just my observation that English RAF Pilots(Officers) *tend* to have a very distinctive accent - I've seen a similar correlation in army and navy officers ( I think they get called 'Ruperts' in the army) . Not quite the same in my profession (physician) albeit hospital docs almost always adopt the same plethora of clichés & tropes - the younger ones imitate their seniors . I couldn't stand to be like that - I find it so asinine that they all talk the same . One example - referring to patients who are elderly , multiple co-morbidities , frail as 'crumble' . The lexicon is just one part of it . Sorry I'm rambling . Yes - those guys you refer to are top professionals no doubt .
@DrTWG no offence taken and I hear what you say. I think you’re absolutely right that everyone in a certain community appears to talk the same ‘language’ eg jargon and idioms. But in the military that would be different between all 3 services and, within the services, it would be nuanced as well ie aircrew would speak a different language / dialect to groundcrew. I’m obviously a dinosaur and old school, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing (in the military arena), as everyone in your close community knows what you’re talking about and everything is intuitive without having to explain what you mean and what you require to be done. In my (former) world, this meant that the vast majority of people worked as a team instinctively - if civvies don’t understand the Band of Brothers (and obviously sisters) concept, then the cohesive strength of a family, engendered by a common language, is why. However, if talking to a person or group outside your own community, then it would be really crass and disrespectful to talk in that way. I don’t think adopting a level of jargon/ idiom is unique to the military. I’ve just retired from a second completely different career and any outsider listening to our office conversations would be totally baffled. I think that’s just the way it is; but I also think that there should be unwritten rules so that no one is disadvantaged or disrespectful and that empathy is used when talking about certain situations ie medical cases / real people. Sorry, I’m rambling as well, but I hope you get the gist. But I wonder if I could recalibrate your thinking about the military and officer class in particular. The military has always been hierarchical and it works (for that world). But officers were almost exclusively recruited from the upper echelons of society for many years. I would have to say that’s no longer the case and you’re as likely to come across Army officers from the back streets of Manchester as you are from the manicured lawns of Surbiton. Same for all three services, and, as a former Master Aircrew (WO1 equivalent) I mix quite happily with officers at all levels. Times have changed and the services are significantly less classless than they were. Anyway, back to your original question about the origins of this particular film about the Piper Alpha rescue. It wasn’t a coincidence that it was filmed on that night. Paul Berriff is a renowned photographer and filmmaker and he had been embedded with 202 Sqn at RAF Lossiemouth to film a series about the work of that helicopter SAR unit. On the night in question, he had been out celebrating his birthday in a curry house in Elgin, when his pager went and a quick phone call to the Sqn suggested he may want to drop everything and get his a*** back to Lossie ASAP. This film is the result of that and is the sole video record of that terrible night, but necessary to show the conditions faced by rescuers, as well as the skill of the medics and the bravery of those who survived. Also a lasting memorial to the 167 who didn’t make it. Never forgotten.
@@thefox6181 Thank you for your considered reply . I feel I must stress two things (1) I was referring to the form of speech - the prosody/accent , *not* content . (2) It was said tongue-in-cheek - I must presume you didn't think I was being serious about 'Accent School' ! An interesting phrase - " recalibrate your thinking " as it suggests there is a standard way of thinking to which I should align (?) . The background info on the film is a nice insight . Yes that was a truly terrible event and so many things rotten - sloppy implementation of the 'Permit to Work' system , effete deluge system & pumps off , failure to prevent the continued pumping fuel to the fire .... inter alia.
The last half of the 1980s was horrendous in the UK, Lockerbie, Piper Alpha, The Herald of Free Enterprise, Hillsborough, the Kings Cross Fire, the worst flu epidemic since the Spanish Flu, fallout rain from Chernobyl, a hurricane and the Friday 13th stock market crash. I was in my late teens and remember wondering what else could go wrong.
Some of my neighbours died in this incident and we all know who is to blame it wasn't the negligence of the workers who are responsible for the worst off shore disaster in history...no that was the greed of the tory governments and the animal thatcher I'm hoping you appreciate that when people danced and got drunk in trafalgar square London the day that it evil bitch died it was for the shameful acts that government was responsible for her disgusting inhumane crimes such as the Hillsborough disaster Kings Cross the Pride of Free Enterprise so let's never forget the lives these people took the crimes they have commited and the fact they will all rot in hell and what's more it will be forever because we will never forget and we will never forgive them either...!!
With the best will in the world , we will always have disasters. It does the dead no respect to post some poorly thought out rant. And let's not forget to be respectful enough to get the names right - people died on the Herald of Free Enterprise.
@@DrTWG It does the dead even less to have there loss noted as an disaster even if the sister ship P&O's the misnamed enterprise was just as much an dirty unkempt embarrassment when berthed alongside any other because I once made the mistake and misfortune to have sailed that rotten line too...Maybe you need to see the conditions on the Rigs with your own eyes I ask have you? did you see the missing limbs of the men the filthy state of the structure the lethal gas and the northern seas 50 ft swell the shocking loss of life and safety record of both the helicopter and supply vessels and don't you need reminded criminal neglect caused the death of these men and all the other in Thatchers so-called disasters...no such disater at all when in fact her disgusting greed excess and sickening ideal of profit took there lives and if your not careful enough with that big mouth and bad attitude of yours like some of us are...it may indeed take yours...?
It was a full series about the SAR teams that happened to take in the Piper Alpha disaster during the filming.The music was across the series not just this episode.The closing was very somber,Paul Berriff and team did an amazing job capturing the heroics that night.
The backgrounds of many of those involved speaks volumes for the professionalism shown in this video.
The Crew of the Tharos and especially the members of the Diving Team were handpicked men. Mostly ex Royal Marines
and Royal Navy Clearance Divers and amongst them some exceptional Civilian divers and supervisors.
Remember this video was filmed many hours after the explosion The crew of the Tharos had responded immediately to what was by any standard a catastrophic event. It was not there job to do this, they fortunately just happened to be there. They were offered a helicopter evacuation shortly after it happened but most chose to stay behind.
Many present and many shown in this video have since been involved in other noteworthy marine rescues and salvage operations. Some came back and took part in ongoing body recoveries and the subsequent salvage of the accommodation module containing many of those who perished.
I was very proud to be amongst them.
None received any recognition.
I would bring forth the members of Silver Pit..
They went above and beyond, and it even meant the ultimate price for some of its crew
Silver Pit.
Excellent film!!!
May God bless the families of the lost and hold those lost comfortably in heaven. ✝️
A beautifully made film of what must have been a horrendous night. The thing that strikes me is the quiet and dignified way everyone behaved.
I was there that night on a canadian warship, part of the nato fleet. for the search. What an horrible night RIP
Thank you for your service!!!!
From a US citizen. God bless Canada, our closest friends!!🇺🇲 🇨🇦👍👍
So touching respect to everyone who helped out with the rescue and rip to the poor young men who sadly lost there life's.
This must have been as close to hell on earth as you can get, the terror these guys must have been in is unimaginable. Tremendous bravery and courage from the rescue teams, and those who were in the vicinity and helped out. I have huge admiration for all involved and their calm approach to what was a horrific incident. My thoughts and prayers to all involved and their friends and families, so many lives changed forever on the 6th of July 1988.
12 years after PA i started my 20 year offshore career. PA was always in everyones mind and every year on the anniversary we put a wreath in to the sea with a minutes silence. One offshore family. ❤
I am From the Petro-Chemical Industry in Australia Manufacturing Iso-Butanol... N Iso-butanol and Iso-Octanol.. from Synthetic gas 50% Hydrogen/Carbon Monoxide ... Propylene and Heptane.. we had an Incredible Clearance to work System in place BUT it failed on Saturday Morning at Shift change resulting in Hot work being carried out in the wrong Place (Oxy-Cutter) A tank that had a Nitrogen sweep on it was turned of for some reason resulting in Oxygen contamination in the gas space ... BOOM.... 20.000 lts of an organic cocktail went up , tore the Tank off its foundation .. resulting in 5 deaths and many injuries during an Annual shutdown I was driving back from Queensland when i heard it on the radio ... Me !!! I was a Shift Manager for ICI Australia... thanks for reading .... foot note we use to use Piper Alfa in our Safety Training video's...
Its amazing how calm and focused everyone is
Pilots dignified but as you watch many men were suffocation or burning in very bad and horrible ways trying to escape.
A horrible night and days that followed, I know as I worked in the recovery of bodies, raising the accommodation block and finally the sinking of Piper Alpha. 25 years and I still see the bodies and scenes as if it was yesterday.
Hi Lee, do you have an email address I could contact you on? We're making a documentary about the survivors of the Piper Alpha disaster, and would like to run a few ideas past you. Would really appreciate you getting in touch! Thanks
That must have been horrendous . The block wasn't raised for some time following I believe. Respect .
tomcatter11 This TV series was an inspiration to me as a child, and remains inspirational to me to this day. I wanted very much to follow in the footsteps of the SAR pilots and crews. Wasn’t to be, but I did visit the Sqn as a child (they hosted a visit for me) and I will always remain in awe of those on the SAR force.
Lee, That must be so traumatic.
For some reason, humans seem to have 'Photographic memories' when it comes to things like this.
As a child, I saw a few road accidents, including a woman being hit and flying through the air and spinning.. She survived.
But in far more serious events, it must be very difficult to come to terms with the memories.
@@Oakleaf700it's called trauma
My brother was actually on the piper that night he came back a different person it changed all our life’s and not for the better not a days goes by were we don’t think of all the boys who didn’t make it every year on the 6th of July is extremely hard for all of us as a family
I am From the Petro-Chemical Industry in Australia Manufacturing Iso-Butanol... N Iso-butanol and Iso-Octanol.. from Synthetic gas 50% Hydrogen/Carbon Monoxide ... Propylene and Heptane.. we had an Incredible Clearance to work System in place BUT it failed on Saturday Morning at Shift change resulting in Hot work being carried out in the wrong Place (Oxy-Cutter) A tank that had a Nitrogen sweep on it was turned of for some reason resulting in Oxygen contamination in the gas space ... BOOM.... 20.000 lts of an organic cocktail went up , tore the Tank off its foundation .. resulting in 5 deaths and many injuries during an Annual shutdown I was driving back from Queensland when i heard it on the radio ... Me !!! I was a Shift Manager for ICI Australia... thanks for reading .... foot note we use to use Piper Alfa in our Safety Training video's...
Lost my uncle that horrible night. RIP men.
Condolences 😢
🙏🇮🇪
II am From the Petro-Chemical Industry in Australia Manufacturing Iso-Butanol... N Iso-butanol and Iso-Octanol.. from Synthetic gas 50% Hydrogen/Carbon Monoxide ... Propylene and Heptane.. we had an Incredible Clearance to work System in place BUT it failed on Saturday Morning at Shift change resulting in Hot work being carried out in the wrong Place (Oxy-Cutter) A tank that had a Nitrogen sweep on it was turned of for some reason resulting in Oxygen contamination in the gas space ... BOOM.... 20.000 lts of an organic cocktail went up , tore the Tank off its foundation .. resulting in 5 deaths and many injuries during an Annual shutdown I was driving back from Queensland when i heard it on the radio ... Me !!! I was a Shift Manager for ICI Australia... thanks for reading .... foot note we use to use Piper Alfa in our Safety Training video's...
It looks like it could possibly turn into a bigggggee. Little did they know.
An amazing programme,and a difficult job on what was a horrible night.
I remember watching the while series but cant find the rest of them on here
Hard work by hard men.
I work offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Both PA and Horizon are horrible reminders about when things go wrong. When people say "safety regulations are written in blood," this is why.
Amazing that you guys saved anyone on that thing.
For those of you who are not familiar with the North Sea it is a very very hostile work environment. These men had a choice stay where they were and burn or jump and freeze. God bless them all!
No one did calm like the Brits in the olden days.
More stoic than calm
I just watched a video on this incident in which they said two towers pumping oil to PA kept doing so after the rig’s explosion because they weren’t getting permission to stop which would have been extremely expensive. Finally the other towers stopped pumping without that permission, as the PA’s fire kept growing.
The level of greed… outrageous. RIP to these men and bless the rescuers and those that survived!
Offshore safety guy from the Broch (Fraserburgh) - much of the procedures we work with now were borne of this disaster which is still raw to much of the local community. God rest their souls
Most procedures are written in blood. God rest the 167.
Can't imagine what those men went through.
The fire is so bright in this footage that it hurts my eyes just looking at it on a screen. I can’t begin to imagine how intense it would have been in person.
Vaporized the cold sea water below...
It must have been over 1.200 C, since it melted the steel
I was on the first Nimrod (Rescue 01) scrambled to the incident and was on the radar that night. I remember asking the TacNav for an electronic cue to the PA shortly after takeoff from RAF Kinloss, so I could concentrate my search around it. The Canadian co-pilot told me he could see a bright orange glow on the nose, when we were 80 nautical miles away. That’s when we knew it was going to be a major incident. When we arrived on scene (first airborne SAR asset there), we descended down to low level (500’) to assess the situation and the Captain decided to fly by the rig to see what was going on visually and to see if there were survivors in the water we could drop our 10 man life rafts to. As we flew past the PA at about a quarter of a mile we could feel the heat through the aircraft. And when I had my window blind down, it was as light as day. Shortly after, we decided that our best tactic was to climb to a higher altitude to identify and control all the incoming rescue helicopters and coordinate communications between all surface and rotary assets, as well as providing regular updates to Edinburgh Rescue at Pitreavie Castle. A night to remember.
@@thefox6181Same thing happened with Deepwater Horizon. As soon as the USCG took off from New Orleans, they knew exactly where they were going.
@@musicmanfelipeI can imagine! An oil rig fire of that magnitude is always going to be hard to miss.
It goes from that cheesy 80s TV show intro to “What the actual f***?!?”
😂
That is one of those events where you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news 😢😢
My dad was there when it happened, I was only 2 years old at the time (hes in this video) scary stuff 😢
Fascinating . I presume that was a series about SAR and they just happened to be filming that night ? I'm sure all RAF pilots must go to an "Accent School" becasue they all sound the same , inflection and all !
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_(British_TV_series)
Interesting you say that about the accents ! All RAF aircrew (not just pilots) who speak on the radio are taught to convey messages clearly and concisely using standardised terminology where possible. However there was nothing standard about the PA SAR incident and it was testament to the professionalism of all the crews (including civvie helos and radio operators on rigs and ships) that the incident was handled as well as it was in the challenging and novel circumstances. The Nimrod was Rescue 01, and on the video you can hear the dulcet tones of my pal Martin as well as Gary, one of our pilots and a Canadian exchange officer. Both top guys. That was a night forever seared in my memory. RIP to all those who didn’t make it.
@@thefox6181 Well I was talking about accents not really radio discipline/enunciation . It just my observation that English RAF Pilots(Officers) *tend* to have a very distinctive accent - I've seen a similar correlation in army and navy officers ( I think they get called 'Ruperts' in the army) . Not quite the same in my profession (physician) albeit hospital docs almost always adopt the same plethora of clichés & tropes - the younger ones imitate their seniors . I couldn't stand to be like that - I find it so asinine that they all talk the same . One example - referring to patients who are elderly , multiple co-morbidities , frail as 'crumble' . The lexicon is just one part of it . Sorry I'm rambling . Yes - those guys you refer to are top professionals no doubt .
@DrTWG no offence taken and I hear what you say. I think you’re absolutely right that everyone in a certain community appears to talk the same ‘language’ eg jargon and idioms. But in the military that would be different between all 3 services and, within the services, it would be nuanced as well ie aircrew would speak a different language / dialect to groundcrew. I’m obviously a dinosaur and old school, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing (in the military arena), as everyone in your close community knows what you’re talking about and everything is intuitive without having to explain what you mean and what you require to be done. In my (former) world, this meant that the vast majority of people worked as a team instinctively - if civvies don’t understand the Band of Brothers (and obviously sisters) concept, then the cohesive strength of a family, engendered by a common language, is why. However, if talking to a person or group outside your own community, then it would be really crass and disrespectful to talk in that way.
I don’t think adopting a level of jargon/ idiom is unique to the military. I’ve just retired from a second completely different career and any outsider listening to our office conversations would be totally baffled. I think that’s just the way it is; but I also think that there should be unwritten rules so that no one is disadvantaged or disrespectful and that empathy is used when talking about certain situations ie medical cases / real people. Sorry, I’m rambling as well, but I hope you get the gist.
But I wonder if I could recalibrate your thinking about the military and officer class in particular. The military has always been hierarchical and it works (for that world). But officers were almost exclusively recruited from the upper echelons of society for many years. I would have to say that’s no longer the case and you’re as likely to come across Army officers from the back streets of Manchester as you are from the manicured lawns of Surbiton. Same for all three services, and, as a former Master Aircrew (WO1 equivalent) I mix quite happily with officers at all levels. Times have changed and the services are significantly less classless than they were.
Anyway, back to your original question about the origins of this particular film about the Piper Alpha rescue. It wasn’t a coincidence that it was filmed on that night. Paul Berriff is a renowned photographer and filmmaker and he had been embedded with 202 Sqn at RAF Lossiemouth to film a series about the work of that helicopter SAR unit. On the night in question, he had been out celebrating his birthday in a curry house in Elgin, when his pager went and a quick phone call to the Sqn suggested he may want to drop everything and get his a*** back to Lossie ASAP. This film is the result of that and is the sole video record of that terrible night, but necessary to show the conditions faced by rescuers, as well as the skill of the medics and the bravery of those who survived. Also a lasting memorial to the 167 who didn’t make it. Never forgotten.
@@thefox6181 Thank you for your considered reply . I feel I must stress two things (1) I was referring to the form of speech - the prosody/accent , *not* content . (2) It was said tongue-in-cheek - I must presume you didn't think I was being serious about 'Accent School' ! An interesting phrase - " recalibrate your thinking " as it suggests there is a standard way of thinking to which I should align (?) . The background info on the film is a nice insight . Yes that was a truly terrible event and so many things rotten - sloppy implementation of the 'Permit to Work' system , effete deluge system & pumps off , failure to prevent the continued pumping fuel to the fire .... inter alia.
After Lockerbie, this was Britain's deadliest tragedy of modern times.
The last half of the 1980s was horrendous in the UK, Lockerbie, Piper Alpha, The Herald of Free Enterprise, Hillsborough, the Kings Cross Fire, the worst flu epidemic since the Spanish Flu, fallout rain from Chernobyl, a hurricane and the Friday 13th stock market crash. I was in my late teens and remember wondering what else could go wrong.
Used to hear the rumbling of the collapse of the rig, in this episode. Guess they edited it out for sensitive purposes. RIP💕👍
All brave, everyone.
RIP
Never forget
Please, add subtitles to this video.
There’s a little CC in the upper right corner of the video
GOD HELP US ALL
Renewable Energy Now!!
Some of my neighbours died in this incident and we all know who is to blame it wasn't the negligence of the workers who are responsible for the worst off shore disaster in history...no that was the greed of the tory governments and the animal thatcher I'm hoping you appreciate that when people danced and got drunk in trafalgar square London the day that it evil bitch died it was for the shameful acts that government was responsible for her disgusting inhumane crimes such as the Hillsborough disaster Kings Cross the Pride of Free Enterprise so let's never forget the lives these people took the crimes they have commited and the fact they will all rot in hell and what's more it will be forever because we will never forget and we will never forgive them either...!!
With the best will in the world , we will always have disasters. It does the dead no respect to post some poorly thought out rant. And let's not forget to be respectful enough to get the names right - people died on the Herald of Free Enterprise.
@@DrTWG It does the dead even less to have there loss noted as an disaster even if the sister ship P&O's the misnamed enterprise was just as much an dirty unkempt embarrassment when berthed alongside any other because I once made the mistake and misfortune to have sailed that rotten line too...Maybe you need to see the conditions on the Rigs with your own eyes I ask have you? did you see the missing limbs of the men the filthy state of the structure the lethal gas and the northern seas 50 ft swell the shocking loss of life and safety record of both the helicopter and supply vessels and don't you need reminded criminal neglect caused the death of these men and all the other in Thatchers so-called disasters...no such disater at all when in fact her disgusting greed excess and sickening ideal of profit took there lives and if your not careful enough with that big mouth and bad attitude of yours like some of us are...it may indeed take yours...?
Inappropriate comment for this thread. Take the politics and hate somewhere else, there are plenty of other outlets.
Could have done without the music! Bad taste, not top gun!
It was a full series about the SAR teams that happened to take in the Piper Alpha disaster during the filming.The music was across the series not just this episode.The closing was very somber,Paul Berriff and team did an amazing job capturing the heroics that night.