Piper Alpha: The day my dad died offshore
Shane Gorman was just 18 when the Piper Alpha tragedy unfolded, with his father, Dave, being among the 167 people to lose their lives.
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Piper Alpha: Offshore employers haven’t learned the lesson, trade union boss says
Pat Rafferty, Scottish Secretary of the Unite trade union, says he does not believe employers have learned enough from the disaster.
Piper Alpha: We must believe repeat can’t happen, safety chief says
The executive director of Step Change in Safety says the industry “must believe” that a Piper Alpha-scale disaster could never happen again in the North Sea.
Bishop: ‘Piper Alpha memories still raw’
Religious leaders have spoken of how the world must remember Piper Alpha because “we dare not forget”.
Piper Alpha: An experience I’ll never forget
On the evening of the 6th July 1988 I went to bed as I always did at just after midnight because I was in charge of my then baby son’s last feed. Having listened to the news during that feed I was aware that there was a fire offshore but at that point in time the details were sparse.
Learning from HSE successes key to industry recovery, Verum Solutions says
With the 30th anniversary of Piper Alpha upon us, the oil and gas industry deserves credit for its response to the tragedy and the way health and safety measures have been improved to protect the workforce.
Piper Alpha: Survival lesson from man who is ‘blessed to be here’
Steve Rae counts himself among the fortunate 61 who survived Piper Alpha and has made it his duty to ensure that the legacy of the disaster of July 6, 1988, when 167 offshore workers perished, “continues to be revisited, referenced and shared whenever possible with all those connected to and directly employed in the oil and gas industry”.
Piper Alpha: Justice denied by dark power
The latest Ridley Scott movie, All the Money in the World, rotates around the obsession of billionaire John Paul Getty with money and his refusal to pay the multi-million dollar ransom to free his estranged grandson from kidnappers.
Piper Alpha: Cullen Report left no stone unturned
Piecing together precisely what happened, why it happened and how to prevent another Piper Alpha happening again took Lord Cullen well over a year and 400 pages. The impact can be seen across the industry today and his verdict on the present state of offshore safety continues to hold great weight.
Piper Alpha: How the worst of times brought out the best in health workers
The scale of the Piper Alpha disaster was beyond anything Aberdeen's flagship hospital had experience before. At the helm was medical director Gordon Stone, who vividly recalls the extraordinary team spirit show by staff.
Piper Alpha: Importance of sharing knowledge – CMS
“Safety is not an intellectual exercise to keep us in work. It is a matter of life and death. It is the sum of our contributions to safety management that determines whether the people we work with live or die.”
Piper Alpha: It was too dangerous to keep diving
The first government official on the scene after Piper Alpha exploded still remembers the smell of the burning paint that greeted him when he landed on the nearest support vessel.
Piper Alpha: How lives were ripped apart by a perfect storm of failures
It is a date written indelibly into our history.
Piper Alpha: From one hell to another
The earliest memory Marc Reid has of his father was that his hands looked different to other people’s – badly scarred during his escape from the blazing platform.
Piper Alpha: Fears offshore safety drive has stalled
Oil and gas industry bosses have been urged to maintain the focus on safety in the face of new challenges within the sector.
Piper Alpha: The night we saw the sea explode
A flotilla of vessels quickly converged on the scene as everyone joined forces to try to save as many lives as possible. The captain of a tiny fishing boat was among those who joined the rescue effort.
Piper Alpha: Red Adair’s plan to tame the fires
When world-famous US firefighter Red Adair flew in from Houston to orchestrate the operation to “kill” the Piper Alpha wells, the mission appeared immense. Some even thought it impossible.
Piper Alpha: Workers’ lives are still shaped by tragedy
When the dreadful news about Piper Alpha broke I was in London working as a graduate trainee for Shell’s downstream business.
Piper Alpha: Industry embraces challenges, R2S says
In the three decades that have passed since Piper Alpha this industry has changed exponentially: the disaster driving an unprecedented pace and quality of change in operational safety for offshore oil and gas.
Piper Alpha: 30 years on, we still learn
Thirty years on as we remember the Piper Alpha disaster and the 167 lives that were lost, it is a poignant time to recognise the positive safety changes in the years since and how these principles need to be passed from one generation to the next.
One family’s story of survival in aftermath of Piper Alpha
Nothing was ever quite the same for Geoff Bollands or his family after tragedy struck the Piper Alpha platform on July 6 1988.
Capital helping firms take poll position
It’s a well drilled unit, ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice and help get sophisticated technology up and running as fast as possible.
Brexit will strengthen devolution settlement, says David Mundell
Scottish Secretary David Mundell will use an international lecture to claim Brexit will “strengthen” the devolution settlement in Scotland.
A toxic legacy hangs over Scotland’s Brexit war with Theresa May
There’s always one politician who can inflame passions in Scotland, even if she does it from the grave.
Timing should not be determined by May, says Sturgeon
The timing of a second independence referendum should not be determined by what is “convenient” for Theresa May, Scotland’s First Minister has said.