Big toll feared in rig capsize

Press, 29 March 1980, Page 1

Big toll feared in rig capsize

NZPA-Reuter Oslo Another 60 oil-rig work* ers were plucked from the sea to safety last night (N.Z. time) after a "floating hotel” had capsized, plunging all 225 men aboard into the gale-lashed North Sea.

The latest success by rescue helicopters brought the number of survivors to 133. according to a Royal Air Force co-ordi-nating centre established at Pitreavie Castle, just north of Edinburgh.

Officials at the Norwegian port of Stavanger said 69 men were still

missing, and that 23 bodies had been found so far. “The situation is still very confused,” said an R.A.F. spokesman. The accommodation rig Alexander Kielland, on lease to Phillips Petroleum of the United States, collapsed and overturned on Thursday night in the Ekofish oil field midway between Britain and Norway only minutes after one of its five legs had given way.

Most of the people on board were Norwegians but a Phillips spokesman said there were also 35 Britons, three Finns, one Spaniard and one Portu*

guese. The nationalities of the survivors and the missing men have not been established. An extensive and hazardous rescue effort in-, volving ships, helicopters, and aircraft from at least three countries was continuing early today.

An R.A.F. officer who flew over the stricken rig, upturned with its legs in the air, described the scene as “absolute chaos.” He said any workers who had managed to jump into the sea in lifejackets would stand little chance of survival.

One of the Norwegian survivors, Olav Skotheim, told reporters at Stavan-

ger that he had been watching a film in the hotel ' platform’s cinema when the disaster struck.

“Everybody was thrown back, chairs fell, and people started to go for the ladders leading to the main deck,” he said. “It: was difficult to get out bur I think most were able to make it.” Mr Skotheim said he had jumped into the sea and had swum 30m to an adjacent oil rig, where he had been winched aboard by crane. A British survivor, Tony Silvester, told reporters how he had helped to bale out a life dinghy with his shoes until help had ar*

rived. He had been in the cinema with about 85 other people.

“There was this almighty crack and the platform rolled over to one side and it was followed by another and it rolled right over,” he said. “Everyone that could make it clambered to the top and after about 15 minutes the platform went over and everyone was in the sea.”

Mr Silvester s|id that with six others he had managed to scramble into a life dinghy. They had been in it for three hours before a helicopter had winched them up, Mr Skotheim said the

platform had taken only a few minutes to capsize “There was hardly five minutes between the moment one of the legs broke and the moment the whole platform tilted at a 45 deg angle,” he said. Experts are baffled by the accident. Kjetil Hauge, the platform's director, left it only a few hours before the disaster. “I can’t find a reasonable explanation,” he said “Safety devices were supposed to guarantee the platform’s stability even if one of the legs broke. The leg which did collapse held only pumps and ballast reservoirs so there could not have been an

explosion. I rule out the possibility of a collision with a ship.” The R.A.F. spokesman said the top accommodation units on the platform were mow metres below the surface of the sea and that Phillips Petroleum planned to send divers to investigate. Conditions in the area' were atrocious and flying was hazardous, although the weather was reported t.> be slowly improving. The Norwegian Cabinet held an emergency (midnight session to hear reports from rescue officials and the Prime Minister, Mr Nordli, cut short a holiday to help co-ordinate the rescue operations in

what was described as Norway's worst civil disaster this century. The Alexander Kielland, i built in France in 1976, , had three storeys of con- j tainer units used as sleep-' ■ ing accommodation, res- 1 taurants. and recreation J facilities. It rested on five • tubular legs attached to ; huge pontoons resting on : the seabed. The platform was • equipped with two life-.j j boats, eight liferafts, and';! a rescue boat but it was ( not known whether the ! speed of events prevented . j the use of these craft '.

The accident is not the ' j first in .the Norwegian ’; sector of the North Sea; i i oil and gas fields. J .