Cephalopodcast

The Byford Dolphin Accident

I am hosting the Carnival of the Blue today, Monday, the 5th of November. I thought it would be interesting to check Wikipedia to see if there was anything especially nautical or oceanic that happened on this day. What I found was rather grim.

The Byford Dolphin is a semi-submersible Norwegian oil exploration rig converted from a diving rig. It floats in the North Sea to find and drill crude oil deposits.

As a drilling rig, the Byford Dolphin is near the top of its class. It is equipped with advanced drilling equipment and has to meet very high levels of certification under Norwegian law. However, the rig has suffered some serious accidents, most notably an explosive decompression accident in 1983 known as the Byford Dolphin diving bell accident that killed five workers and badly injured one more.

At 4:00 AM on November 5, 1983, four divers were in a Decompression chamber system attached to a diving bell on the rig, being assisted by two dive tenders. One diver was about to close the door between the chamber system and the trunk when the chamber was explosively decompressed from a pressure of 9 atm to 1 atm in a fraction of a second. Five of the men were killed; the other was severely injured.

If you want to read what happens next, click the link. It’s pretty grisly. And a reminder of the risks that diving and exploration entail.

• Wikipedia: Byford Dolphin

The Make: Magazine blog has a couple of links to a Do-It-Yourself underwater camera housing using an inexpensive Igloo™ cooler. Probably not a good idea to take this thing to any kind of depth, but useful around the pool. And only about $50 in materials.

• HOW TO - Underwater video camera / camcorder Housing for less than $50