page_title: Piper Alpha
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Piper Alpha / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Memorial in Hazlehead Park, Aberdeen to the victims of the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster.
context_page_description: Piper Alpha was an oil platform located in the North Sea approximately 120 miles north-east of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was operated by Occidental Petroleum Limited and began production in 1976, initially as an oil-only platform but later converted to add gas production.
  An explosion and resulting oil and gas fires destroyed Piper Alpha on 6 July 1988, killing 167 men, including two crewmen of a rescue vessel; 61 workers escaped and survived. Thirty bodies were never recovered. The total insured loss was about £1.7 billion, making it one of the costliest man-made catastrophes ever. At the time of the disaster, the platform accounted for approximately ten percent of North Sea oil and gas production. The accident is the worst offshore oil disaster in terms of lives lost and industry impact.
  In Aberdeen, the Kirk of St Nicholas on Union Street has dedicated a chapel in memory of those who died, containing a Book of Remembrance listing them. There is a memorial sculpture in the Rose Garden of Hazlehead Park.
context_section_description: There is controversy about whether there was sufficient time for a more effective emergency evacuation. The main problem was that most of the personnel with the authority to order an evacuation had been killed when the first explosion destroyed the control room. This was a consequence of the platform design, which did not include blast walls. Another contributing factor was that the nearby connected platforms Tartan and Claymore continued to pump gas and oil to Piper Alpha until its pipeline ruptured in the heat in the second explosion. Their operations crews did not believe they had authority to shut off production, even though they could see that Piper Alpha was burning.
  The nearby diving support vessel Lowland Cavalier reported the initial explosion just before 22:00, and the second explosion occurred 22 minutes later. By the time civil and military rescue helicopters reached the scene, flames over 100 metres in height and visible as far away as 100 km (120 km from the Maersk Highlander) away prevented safe approach. The largest number of survivors (37 out of 59) were recovered by the Fast Rescue Boat of the Standby Safety Vessel, MV Silver Pit; coxswain James Clark later received the George Medal. Others awarded the George Medal were Charles Haffey from Methil, Andrew Kiloh from Aberdeen, and James McNeill from Oban.
  The blazing remains of the platform were eventually extinguished three weeks later by a team led by firefighter Red Adair, despite reported conditions of 80 mph (130 km/h) winds and 70-foot (20 m) waves. The part of the platform which contained the galley where about 100 victims had taken refuge was recovered in late 1988 from the sea bed, and the bodies of 87 men were found inside.
caption: Memorial to the disaster in Hazlehead Park, Aberdeen.
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