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The Piper Alpha oil rig was an oil rig located in the North Sea that was around 120 miles, or 190 kilometers offshore from Aberdeen, Scotland. The rig was built in 1976, and was located in the Piper Oilfield. The rig had 226 people on it on the night of the tragedy. A repair had been made to one of the condensate pipelines around noon on July 6, which involved removing the safety valve. The open pipe was temporarily covered by a disk cover. However the work could not begin on it which meant that the disk remained in place. It was also only hand tightened, and paperwork was filled out that stated that it was not meant to be used. However at 6:00 that night the day shift ended and the night shift began, with 62 employees being on duty, and during the switch the engineer neglected to inform anyone about the condition of the pump, and especially given where it was, it would not have been easy to spot. An hour later the automatic firefighting system was turned off due to divers being in the water at that time, since the system sucked in large amounts of seawater. A couple hours later and the other pump (not the in maintenance one) fails. And since no paperwork was found and nobody was informed of its condition the disk covered pipe is turned on. This causes gas to leak out and it inevitably ignites, althought the source of ignition was never found. It created a huge explosion and would start a roaring fire, which made it so that the control room had to be abandoned. Because of this, no alarm or proper evacuation was carried out. To make matters worse, several other oil pipelines ruptured and fuel kept being fed to it as the rig was connected to other nearby rigs. More explosions followed, and almost all of the rig capsized leaving behind only one module. It also took the lives of 165 people and left only 61 survivors. Many of the dead were waiting in the accomodation block for rescue, as they believed that helicopters would rescue them if they waited in there. 87 bodies were found in there. It is the deadliest offshore oil rig disaster in history.

Piper Alpha - Wikipedia

Piper Alpha disaster | Description & Facts | Britannica

Description
The Piper Alpha oil rig was an oil rig located in the North Sea that was around 120 miles, or 190 kilometers offshore from Aberdeen, Scotland. The rig was built in 1976, and was located in the Piper Oilfield. The rig had 226 people on it on the night of the tragedy. A repair had been made to one of the condensate pipelines around noon on July 6, which involved removing the safety valve. The open pipe was temporarily covered by a disk cover. However the work could not begin on it which meant that the disk remained in place. It was also only hand tightened, and paperwork was filled out that stated that it was not meant to be used. However at 6:00 that night the day shift ended and the night shift began, with 62 employees being on duty, and during the switch the engineer neglected to inform anyone about the condition of the pump, and especially given where it was, it would not have been easy to spot. An hour later the automatic firefighting system was turned off due to divers being in the water at that time, since the system sucked in large amounts of seawater. A couple hours later and the other pump (not the in maintenance one) fails. And since no paperwork was found and nobody was informed of its condition the disk covered pipe is turned on. This causes gas to leak out and it inevitably ignites, althought the source of ignition was never found. It created a huge explosion and would start a roaring fire, which made it so that the control room had to be abandoned. Because of this, no alarm or proper evacuation was carried out. To make matters worse, several other oil pipelines ruptured and fuel kept being fed to it as the rig was connected to other nearby rigs. More explosions followed, and almost all of the rig capsized leaving behind only one module. It also took the lives of 165 people and left only 61 survivors. Many of the dead were waiting in the accomodation block for rescue, as they believed that helicopters would rescue them if they waited in there. 87 bodies were found in there. It is the deadliest offshore oil rig disaster in history.

Piper Alpha - Wikipedia

Piper Alpha disaster | Description & Facts | Britannica