A diver was pulled motionless from the water after carrying out practice rescue drills at an oil platform in the North Sea, a fatal accident inquiry heard yesterday.
Russell Robinson, 33, was carrying out a routine diving operation at the Balmoral platform when he died on October 30, 2011.
The diver had successfully completed two rescue practices with his colleague, Paul Stone, 55, shortly before he suffered breathing difficulties at a depth of 146 metres.
Giving evidence at an inquiry into his death yesterday, Mr Stone said the two divers had been offered a chance to look at some equipment at the end of the drills.
But the men then discovered that Mr Stone had a leak on the hose attached to his emergency gas cylinder which needed repaired.
Their supervisor told him to go back to the diving bell to fix the problem. When the leak was sorted, Mr Stone decided to wrap up his umbilical cable, a group of cables that supplies breathing gas to divers, and wait for his colleague to return.
Mr Stone said: “I do believe Russell was on his way back when the situation occurred.
“I heard him talking about difficulties with breathing. So I was looking at the panel and shouted to the supervisor.”
Mr Stone said he could see from the panels in the diving bell that Mr Russell was receiving gas from the system and that wasn’t the problem.
He began helping another colleague pull the umbilical cord attached to the stricken diver to get him to safety.
He said they could see the light on his colleague’s helmet as they pulled the umbilical further in.
Mr Stone said: “We pulled him a bit more and he just drifted under the bell. He was face down, arms sprayed out.
“He was motionless.”
The inquiry continues.
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