North Sea rig on fire
NZPA-Reuter Aberdeen All but one of 67 crewmen on a North Sea oil rig were rescued after it was set ablaze by natural gas that bubbled to the surface and exploded, the British Coastguard said. Mel Miller, drilling superintendent for the United States Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), said 66 workers on its semi-submersible Ocean Odyssey escaped unhurt because they were ordered to don survival suits as soon as the gas was detected. Two explosions and fire ripped through the rig on Thursday, 130 km from the Scottish coast. A survivor Jim Murphy, aged 42, said he saw at least 10 men leap for their lives into the sea. “We had a lot of gas and it was difficult to control,” he said. “We lowered the (life) boat to the water and a bubble of gas came up with a sheet of flame.”
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Press, 24 September 1988, Page 10
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147North Sea rig on fire Press, 24 September 1988, Page 10
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