Five Divers Met A Horrific End In A Deadly Oil Rig Pressure Accident

Back in 1983, five saturation divers lost their lives during a pressure-related disaster aboard the Byford Dolphin oil rig. What began as routine maintenance ended in one of the most tragic deep-sea accidents on record.

Five people lost their lives in one of the most tragic and gruesome underwater accidents ever recorded, all during what should have been just another job on a deep-sea diving rig.History has shown us time and time again that death can come in many terrible and unexpected forms.

On November 5, 1983, five “saturation divers” working near the Byford Dolphin oil platform met a truly horrific fate during an accident that shocked the industry.

To really understand what happened, we need to take a moment to explain what “saturation diving” actually is and why it’s used.Divers operating at extreme depths use a specially balanced mix of oxygen and nitrogen to breathe safely while working underwater.

Technical divers work on oil rigs, conducting underwater maintenance and construction.Getty Images

This gas mixture is kept under pressure so that the human body can handle the crushing force found nearly 1,000 feet below the surface of the ocean.To manage this, divers often live for several days in a pressurized chamber. This setup makes it easier to carry out deep-sea construction or repairs without going through long decompression procedures each time.

By staying in this pressurized space, they avoid the repeated and risky process of pressurizing and depressurizing their bodies.

But sadly, for the five men in this chamber, what should have been a safety system turned out to be fatally dangerous.

They are spared from having to go through the pressurization and depressurization process again as a result.However, as the five people who were in this chamber discovered, this can be quite harmful.

The divers had been living inside a pressurized chamber setup that included living quarters and a section known as “the diving bell,”. This entire system was designed to keep them safely pressurized during their assignment.This section was isolated from the rest of the unit, since it served as the space where divers could safely decompress after spending time at depth.

No one knows for sure why it happened, but the diving bell somehow got released before the doors had been completely sealed. What we do know is that the mistake turned out to be catastrophic.

Because of that sudden release, the pressure inside the living area dropped drastically. It went from nine atmospheres all the way down to just one in a matter of seconds.To put it in perspective, divers normally spend several days slowly adjusting to surface pressure after working at such depths. You can imagine how violent and deadly such a sudden change would be.

The placement of the people in the capsule.Wiki

One of the men, William Crammond, was killed instantly when the diving bell struck him. He had been working as a tender at the time of the incident.The other four divers—Roy Lucas, Bjørn Bergersen, Edwin Coward, and Truls Hellevik—died in ways that were both brutal and heartbreaking.

Due to the rapid depressurization, the nitrogen in their blood expanded suddenly, creating internal bubbles that tore through their bodies with terrifying force.

But one diver in particular experienced an even more horrific fate than the others.

This diver’s body was described as “fragmented”, a word that doesn’t even begin to capture the brutality of what actually occurred. The pressure literally forced parts of his body through a 60-centimeter opening.The sheer force caused his internal organs to be expelled from his chest cavity, scattering them throughout the pod. Some pieces were even found as far as 10 meters away from the chamber.

Martin Saunders, another tender on duty, was the only person who survived the disaster. However, he was left in critical condition after witnessing and experiencing the horror up close.

The swift depressurization caused the nitrogen that was saturated their blood to burst inside of them like bubbles.However, one diver suffered a particularly horrific end.