Piper Alpha oil rig

[Keith Tindell]

Just a heads up for the guys, as i know some of you were involved. 9th July on BBc 2 at 2100hrs till 2230 a documentary on the 25th anniversary of the disaster, as i am sure you are aware 167 men lost their lives. I dont know if there is some way with the wonders of the world wide web, that the guys in Oz etc can watch this. i will be glued to it, regards KT

[Doc Vernon]

Will keep an eye out for that and se if there is a way for us here to watch it KT.
Cheers

BBC - Media Centre - Programme Information - Piper Alpha: Fire In The Night

[Captain Kong]

John Sabourne was involved in that incident I believe.
So he will be a good Critic of what is shown on TV.
Brian.

[Gordon Turnbull]

I watched it live, really don't think I could watch it again.

[Keith at Tregenna]

Piper Alpha disaster: A list of the 167 men who lost their life in North Sea tragedy:

5 Jul 2013 17:52

THE 1988 Piper Alpha tragedy claimed 167 lives after a gas leak caused the oil production platform to explode in a massive ball of flames. The death toll included two crewmen of a rescue vessel.

LINK: Piper Alpha disaster: A list of the 167 men who lost their life in North Sea tragedy - Daily Record

K.

[Keith Tindell]

Watched the programe with awe, the loss of life horrendous, and some of the survivor stories very moving. If the program was at all accurate, all down
to human error , but at least the system was tightened up thereafter, KT

[j.sabourn]

Have just sighted your post now as was abroad when you posted it. I would just like to say that this program was already in the process of being made by the original Documentary makers on the date at the head of the earlier email sent to one of the makers. I was told it would be a permanent memorial to all those lost and all the survivors and rescuers would be interviewed to this intent as a lasting memorial. To this end I submitted all the info. and data I had some of which would I imagine or could be libellous to some if they wanted to follow up on. However it is a true account of my version of what I saw and did. I have missed a few lines of this email sent on the chance some may think it detrimental, however it is basically my feelings on the subject. 21st July 2011 Steve, Enclosed please find copies of statements as promised. I dont think the general public or the press are aware of the stand by boat industry.Anyone working in this part of the industry would tell you they were there to be the plartform from which the frc was launched to retrieve anyone falling off the rig. When the proverbial S...e hit the fan, all things then changed and and are supposed to be able to do wonders. I know it is a bad workman who blames his tools, but if the P.A. could have been foreseen a larger and more modern vessel with a larger crew would have been in attendance. Facts which I emphasised at the Inquiry and statements, the searchlight was not working, the reason was the company would not pay for the bulb, these were very expensive and at the time about 80 pounds. The stupid remarks made about a half inflated rubber boat lying on the poop deck and which ****** was running around wanting to launch, this was used to paint round the ship in port and would have lasted about a couple of minutes close to the platform as was all rubber. For example we had a large norwegian fender about 2.5 feet in diameter lying around the deck, I noticed when leaving the ship in Aberdeen this was down to the size of a football. I saw the mate throw the jerrycan with petrol in over the side, which I considered a good move, I felt when the Sandhavens boat was hit by the fireball that it might have homed in on the petrol fumes as she was petrol driven. All these fireballs zooming around semed to have minds of their own, an expert on fire would tell you more on this. I have the feeling however anyone working in a petrol driven boat was at an extreme disadvantage. The Silver Pits boat was diesel driven and she was a jet boat and was the best boat that NOMIS had hence their worry about damage to same ( never mind the crew). When I say the blankets towels and hot water bottles were the ships survival equipment, these boats had to carry, no one ever said how you fill up 300 hot water bottles. 9 times out of 10 these trawlers had to get fresh water from the rig just to make a cup of tea after about 15 days at sea and used to keep water in plastic containers for same use. I was on one where believe it or not we had 2 toilets and both used fresh water flushing, I locked up one toilet shut the water off and a bucket had to be thrown over the side for flushing purposes.It makes me laugh when I hear people talk about these ships they have no idea of their capability. The top speed for the Silver Pit was all of 6.5 knots and this was with everything going good, during the disaster we were down to 3.5 knots max. So a certain person complaining about being towed through the water was certainly not water skiing. Let me also state that anyone who says they werent scared sh...ess that night is either an idiot or a big liar. I think I have mentioned in one of the papers I sent you about a certain person telling me I was an idiot for going into the platform, saying I should have let the bastards fry, I think he had just come from the enquiry and may have had some derogatory remarks made to him by some of the earlier survivors who didnt get their feet wet. I never saw any of the platforms liferafts inflated they were just bobbing around in their hard shells, I think from this alone it should have been made mandatory for their tug lines to have a wire heart to lengthen the time of their burning. The statements I made to relevant authorities were the basic facts and did not glamourise anything, there was nothing to glamourise just a lot of burnt dead people, those that did survive should thank God for the crew of the Silver Pit, its a pity one couldnt pick who one saves as there would probably be a few of the whingers thrown back. I hope you can get something from enclosed statements, but as I said they were for personal use to pass on to family, which I have now done. Best Regards John Sabourn

[Keith Tindell]

Hi John, thanks for the info, it sure was a nightmare scenario. Like all TV docu `s , leave the truth out when it suits. I had no knowledge of the actual incident, and watched the program for my information, and when someone involved, such as yourself tells the true story, then you begin to see the true situation, Regards KT

[j.sabourn]

I went over to uk at my own expense on November last year to say my piece, as think I owed this to those who perished. Let me say I have never ever received any gratuities or any payments whatsoever as would consider it an insult to those who died. Programmes like this the same as any documentary are made by people who do this for making a living so some leeway must be given to them. In my own mind I envisaged those people involved and I know my own thoughts and feelings over the past 25 years have sometimes been very black and depression if that is the word, very hard to ride over at times others may have been in a much worse state than me, and I can certainly understand their feelings. Unless you are actually involved in a life threatening position and expect to die it is a very hard thing to describe to someone else and to some extent is a personal and private experience of grief. Each person is an individual and will react in a different way, you will see this in any disaster situation. Where the person you expect to be in control panics and the person you expect to panic doesnt. However I was lucky and I sailed with probably a frightened bunch of men, who did not panic. To be honest I was relieved when my interview for whatever reason was not shown. Whether political as said before or not digestable to the general public, my only gripe is that I broke other commitments I made at home at the time to speak to no one. However as I say to myself I did not want to in the first place. This may sound a bit mixed up to some, but suppose others in the same situation will understand. Regards John Sabourn

[Ivan Cloherty]

Like you John, myself and a couple of other guys on here have been interviewed by the Press for one reason or another. NOTHING ever gets reported as you said it, sentences are taken out of context either because they don't understand what has happened or it sounds better (in their minds) the way they portray it. My advice to anyone would be 'Don't speak to the Press' no matter how truthful and articulate you yourself are, they are not bound by the same moral of honesty, they write that which sells papers and to hell with the consequences to the individual.