Piper Alpha: Oil Rig Disaster | The Leak | 1

Against The Odds

Wondery

Cassie De Pecol, History, Society & Culture, Dolby, Mike Corey, Dolby Atmos, Atmos

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On July 6th, 1988, workers clock in to a typical night shift aboard Piper Alpha, the world’s largest offshore oil rig, in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland. Then, around 10 p.m., a series of mistakes leads to a gas leak and explosion. Soon, 226 men find themselves trapped on the burning platform, in what will become one of the deadliest man-made disasters in history.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wundery Plus subscribers can listen to Against the Odds early in ad free right now.
0:05.0	Join Wundery Plus in the Wundery App or on Apple Podcasts.
0:09.0	A listener note, Against the Odds uses dramatizations that are based on true events.
0:15.6	Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented, but everything is based on research. Gere
0:28.0	Gereth Perry Davies slides his sandblasting gun along a massive steel girder in front of him.
0:35.0	Every few seconds he kicks his fins a bit to stay level.
0:39.0	Steadiness is important in underwater repair work.
0:42.0	After a moment he pulls back the important in underwater repair work.
0:43.0	After a moment, he pulls back the gun and examines the patch of metal he's stripped of paint.
0:48.0	It's not good news. He can see a crack.
0:52.0	Every week, it seems like he finds something else in need of
0:55.7	fixing on this rig. It's 10 p.m. on July 6th, 1988. Perry Davies works as a diver on the Piper Alpha Oil Rig in the North Sea.
1:08.0	Piper Alpha is the world's largest oil drilling platform.
1:12.0	It sits 110 miles off the east coast of Scotland and has been pumping
1:17.2	oil from beneath the ocean floor for more than a decade.
1:20.9	Perry Davies is a slender man in his early 30s.
1:24.0	Dark circles ring his eyes.
1:27.0	A headlamp affixed to his yellow helmet casts an eerie glow.
1:31.0	He's 50 feet below the surface connected to the rig by an umbilical cord
1:36.2	that pumps air into his helmet. It also keeps him in radio contact with his supervisor and powers
1:42.3	his sandblasting gun. with his
1:45.0	headlaster with his sandblasting gun.
	...

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