10 Deep Sea Diving Accidents That Will Shake Your Wood
There are few jobs more dangerous than deep-sea saturation diving, where divers ascend to depths of up to 1,000 feet (300 meters) to repair undersea structures. During these dives, often lasting months, divers live in pressure chambers to prevent decompression sickness. However, things sometimes go wrong at those great depths. Here are 10 deep-sea diving accidents that will make your wood shake.
Related: Top 10 deadliest industrial accidents that were preventable
10 Byford dolphin accident
The Byford Dolphin accident is one of the largest deep sea accidents ever to have occurred. This incident occurred in 1983 on the Byford Dolphin, an oil rig operated in the North Sea.
It happened like this. On a typical workday, two divers would climb into the rig’s diving bell, a transport chamber, to take them to depth before heading to the chamber system far below the surface. At first everything seemed to go well, with the divers taking turns resting and heading out to work on the rig.
However, on one fateful day, while underwater, two divers were resting in their decompression chamber while another two divers made their way to the diving bell chambers. Everything went as planned when the two tenders – the ‘drivers’ – attached the bell to the rooms. The two divers on board would soon go to their own compression chamber. However, as the tenders were preparing to depart, they failed to properly seal the diving bell from the chambers before beginning their ascent.
What followed was that the chambers were suddenly decompressed from nine atmospheres to one atmosphere, and air poured out of the chambers. Tragically, three of the divers who were in the chambers at the time died in a horrible way: by explosive decompression. Essentially, the nitrogen bubbles in their blood expanded, cooking them from the inside out. The fourth was sucked out of a very narrow opening, causing his internal organs to spill out. One of the divers in the bubble was also killed in the accident.[1]
9 Wildrake accident
The Wildrake accident took place in August 1979 on an oil rig in the North Sea. During this dive, two commercial divers – Americans Richard Walker and Victor Guiel – climbed into a diving bell aboard the MS Wildrake, a support vessel on the oil rig.
Unfortunately, the diving bell became separated from the lift wire used to lower and raise it while the bell was at a depth of 550 feet. This meant that no electricity or heat was supplied to the diving bell.
The oil rig company did its best to rescue the two divers inside the diving bell, but their efforts would take almost twenty-four hours. At that time, the fate of the two divers in the bell was sealed: by the time the drilling rig managed to pull the diving bell back to the surface, the divers had died due to hypothermia.[2]
8 DOF submarine accident
Not all diving accidents occurred in the North Sea. A nasty deep-sea diving accident occurred in 2017 off the northeastern coast of Australia and was run by a company called DOF Subsea Australia.
In this particular accident, DOF Subsea Australia sent several divers down between 237 and 270 meters to work on an underwater pipeline. This was actually one of the deepest saturation dives in Australian waters, which meant it was a pretty big deal.
Unfortunately, it seems like the company didn’t consider this dip to be a big deal. They failed to provide their divers with the proper gases needed to work at those depths. When the divers returned to the surface, they began to complain of hallucinations, tremors and cognitive problems, stating that they had noticed these symptoms even while on the ocean floor.
Further investigation revealed that the divers suffered from high-pressure nerve syndrome, which occurs when divers inhale helium at great depths. Although the symptoms were reversible and the divers suffered no lasting health problems, DOF Subsea Australia was fined by the court for their negligence.[3]
7 Accident with driller
The Drill Master accident occurred in Norway in 1974 and was a tragedy that ultimately claimed the lives of two commercial divers. In this particular accident, the two divers in question, Per Skipnes and Robert John Smyth, were preparing to work on an oil rig called the Drill Master.
While in the diving bell at a depth of 98 meters (321 feet), the drop weight on the bell malfunctioned and was released. This caused the diving bell to shoot to the surface.
It would have been bad enough if that was all that happened. However, the bottom door of the diving bell was open at the time. This meant that when the rig shot to the surface, the pressure within it changed rapidly, and both divers ultimately died due to decompression sickness and drowning.[4]
6 Star Canopus Accident
The Star Canopus accident occurred in Scotland in 1978 and was part of a routine dive off the Beryl Alpha platform in the North Sea. On this particular dive, two divers, Lothar Ward and Gerard Prangley, climbed into the diving bell to go down for a routine dive.
Unfortunately, the trap wire, life support and guide wires were all severed by a loose anchor. Instead of slowly lowering the diving bell to depth, the bell plunged to a depth of more than 100 meters.
A rescue mission was launched and more than thirteen hours later the two divers were finally recovered. Tragically, by then they had both died due to drowning and hypothermia.[5]
5 Stena Seaspread accident
The Stena Seaspread accident occurred in the North Sea in 1981. During this accident, two divers, Phil Robinson and Jim Tucker, were in a diving bell more than a hundred meters below the ocean’s surface, having just completed work on the oil rig.
Although everything seemed to have gone well, the team was unaware that strong tides had damaged the bell’s umbilical cords, meaning the diving bell was losing air or pressure.
Naturally, as soon as the surface team realized what had happened, they began a rescue operation. They started pulling the diving bell to the surface. However, they realized that the bell had lost pressure and the divers were at risk of decompression sickness.
Thinking quickly, the rescue team lowered a second diving bell to the depth of the divers, and rescue divers helped move the two men from the broken bell to the new one. The rescue was a success and all parties involved returned to the surface unharmed.[6]
4 Dare to undertake one accident
Part of another apparently routine dive, the Venture One diving accident, occurred in 1977 in the North Sea. In this particular accident, two divers, Dave Hammond and Craig Hoffman, had to lower a blowout prevention device up to 160 meters (525 feet) in front of the Venture One oil rig.
As part of the operation, the divers had to cut several loose wires from the eruption prevention system. Hoffman waited in a room in the diving bell while Hammond went outside to work on the rig. While Hammond was working on the oil rig, a strange electrical noise could be heard over the communications radio.
Hammond rushed back to the diving bell to check on his diving partner, only to see him floating unconscious outside the diving bell. Hammond pulled Hoffman back into the bubble, and after doing his best to resuscitate him, it was eventually declared that Hoffman had died.
Both men were brought to the surface and investigation revealed that Hoffman had died from drowning. It is thought he fell from the diving bell with his mask off, inhaled water and died.[7]
3 Waage Drill II Accident
The Waage Drill II accident occurred in 1975 when two divers, Robert Edwin and Peter Holmes, were working in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland.
During this dive, the two divers descended to 120 meters (394 feet) for a short dive, during which they untangled a rope along the rig. After completing the job, the two divers returned to the diving bell to decompress.
However, while they were shutting down the doorbell, they noticed a gas leak. Despite their efforts, they were unable to stop the leak and were forced to move into a deeper chamber attached to the bell. This is where things really started to go wrong.
Their supervisor, who was outside the room, began pouring helium into it to seal the room from the gas leak. However, because the meter in the room was not working, he did not realize that he had overcompensated and sent too much helium into the room.
This caused the internal pressure to drop to a depth of 200 meters and the temperature to rise to as much as 48.9 degrees Celsius. The two men in the room could not breathe properly at this temperature and died of hyperthermia after a few hours.[8]
2 Bibby Topaz accident
The Bibby Topaz is a more recent diving accident that occurred in 2012. In this terrible accident, a diver named Chris Lemmons was working on a subsea drilling structure with the support of a ship called the Bibby Topaz.
However, while Chris was underwater, the Bibby Topaz’s positioning system malfunctioned, causing him to drift 600 feet (190 meters) off course. The good news is that Chris managed to get out of the underwater structure safely, where he could await rescue. However, he became attached to his umbilical cord. This cord provided him with air, hot water and communications.
This left the terrified diver stuck on the seabed in total darkness. The good news is that back on the surface, the Bibby Topaz managed to regain their position and immediately realized what had happened. After just 40 minutes on the seabed, they managed to pull Chris back to his diving bell and get him the medical attention he needed. Chris fortunately survived the ordeal and since then the Bibby Topaz has made efforts to improve safety for its divers.[9]
1 Accident on the Johnson Sea Link
The Johnson Sea Link accident happened in 1973. What happened is that a submarine called the Johnson Sea Link was sent down off the coast of Key West to help sink an artificial reef in the area.
There were two divers on board the ship, Edwin Link and Albert Stover, as well as the dive boat’s pilot, tasked with checking conditions on the reef below.
However, while the submarine was submerged, it became trapped in the wreckage of the destroyer it was supposed to be monitoring.
Rescue efforts were immediately launched and the submarine was eventually recovered. While the ship’s pilot made it to the surface alive, both divers had died due to carbon dioxide poisoning.[10]