Severed lifeline leaves divers trapped at 500 feet | The Wildrake Diving Accident

commercial diving is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world being trapped under the weight of hundreds of feet of ocean is the nagging dread of every diver as they are attached to the surface with a single Lifeline umbilical cord when the Integrity of this link is in Jeopardy the consequences are devastating this is the Fatal breakdown of the wild rake diving accident INF Fabco diving services had just received the contract to repair an oil transfer station in the North Sea they were a commercial diving operation which had just acquired a brand new diving ship the wild rake the final details were still being seen to in manufacturing so they would be rushing this ship out to start their repair contract immediately in this repair plan the infab co diving company would be reinstalling a riser and buy in a filling station for an oil platform in the thistle oil field this Filling Station was called a single anchor leg moing or somm and it allowed tankers to pull up at a safe distance from the platform to fill up during this first group of Dives they had to deal with a number of unexpected issues with the new saturation diving system this system included a diving bell to transport divers to the necessary depths to work on welding fitting and repairing the Som Parts this Bell would be pressurized to match the pressure on the outside so that the two divers could work and rest in shifts deep in the ocean the wild rake was equipped with a saturation diving system this allowed the divers who were working hundreds of feet below the surface to stay under pressure inside the ship to avoid the long decompression schedule in recreational diving a diver might spend 10 minutes at a deeper depth then have a slow Ascent with stops at several depths along the way to allow the gas that was pushed into the bloodstream a chance to slowly gas off avoiding the dangerous consequences of decompression sickness if you return to shallow depths too quickly the gas leaves the bloodstream suddenly and causes air bubbles which are painful and debilitating and in extreme circumstances can be deadly commercial divers have to spend long stretches of time at Deep depths to complete work projects which is problematic for companies trying to do repairs or installations on the seafloor the saturation diving system is a clever solution to keep the divers safely at a consistent amount of pressure for extended periods of time in this case the divers would be under saturation for 28 days at a time this would allow them to work in shifts to complete the contracted repairs while avoiding the slow 5-day process of decompression on the wild rake the diving bell was attached to two living Chambers this allowed six divers to be in saturation at the same time two divers would go down in the Bell to work on the job while the other four would eat sleep and rest the quarters were cramped but the job paid well so divers were willing to sacrifice their comfort and risk their safety to support their families back home there was a team dedicated to monitoring the air quality temperature and pressure of the saturation Chambers and another team dedicated to the Bell the men were all facing the same danger in such a high- press environment but the guys in the Bell faced additional risks by being alone nearly 500 ft below the surface the wild rake had been working on the project for nearly a month they had successfully completed 29 Bell Dives working on various parts of the connection and installation the six men currently under saturation on the wild rake in August of 1979 had only just started their 28-day schedule Richard Walker skip guel Len Dave Mitchell Roger Palmer and Dave Boyd were on the ninth day of saturation they had moved the completed Psalm unit next to the thistle platform and we going to attach it to the somm base when the previous team came out of saturation they shared some of their issues with the brand new chamber and Bell their 17 Dives were the first for this brand new ship so they discovered some problems to manage and mistakes to fix one of the first discoveries was that the Bell couldn't be lifted up into its Cradle to be launched the swivel connector was too long for the cradle that was on this ship it seems like a fundamental design standard that was missed but Brian Masterson the owner of infab decided to pull the swivel off the lift wire and reconnect it with two shackles instead it did solve the fit problem but was a poor substitute for the necessary swivel action the torque and impact on the shackles was not appropriate but it was a temporary solution for this dive trip even though there were some questionable design features for this belt the new group entered saturation with confidence that their teams on the ship would keep them safe so on this day August 7th Richard and Skip were up for their Bell shift it was 11:00 p. m. and the men were suited up in their hot water suits to enter the Bell these suits were an essential component of saturation diving one of the many tubes fed through the umbilical cord to the Bell contained hot water the water flows through their scuba suits to keep them warm the temperature in the North Sea was 40° F the umbilical also had tubes to provide their breathing gas mixture and electricity as well as cords for depth gauges Communications and video The Bell was designed to be sealed with a double door system that would allow the pressure inside to be raised or lowered to match the depth where the work would be performed this pressure would also allow the hatch doors to be opened without flooding the interior with water one of the two men would lower themselves into the water and become the lockout man performing the work outside The Bell the other man would remain inside as the Bellman to monitor CO2 levels air pressure Communications and the umbilical of the outside man at 11:40 Richard slipped into the dark water to start the night's work he performed many of his tasks and was Now using a video camera to show the base to the dive superintendent up on the ship after a few passes with the camera he turned to return to the Bell what he saw was confusing for a split second but then it became strikingly clear the Bell was much closer to the sea floor and was hanging at a 45° angle he directed his camera to the Bell to show the topside team as he instantly moved to the Bell knowing that he had to get inside before it got any closer to the bottom in one of the unusual design flaws of this Bell there was no frame to hold the Bell off the Sandy Bottom if it needed to be set down the Bell would directly rest on the ground without any space to operate the hatch door as Richard moved to the Bell skip was inside cracking the gas valve open to increase the pressure inside the Bell since the entire Bell had dropped 25 ft the icy water was starting to rise up the trunk it was 2:45 a.

m. when Richard informed the top side of what he saw the lift wire was no longer connected to the Bell he came up the trunk and pulled the inner door closed as he and Skip tried to figure out exactly what had happened up on the ship the Bell team realized that the lift wire had broken and the bell was actually dangling by its umbilical the video screen had gone black back and no Communications were coming from the Bell out on Deck another huge problem was revealed hot water was spewing all over the deck from the umbilical this was another design flaw that had been revealed a few weeks earlier when the hot water line cracked and broke inside the umbilical the wrong kind of tubing was used and it quickly sheared under the kinking and folding of the umbilical this problem had been solved by adding a new hot water line outside the umbilical and just taping it in place around the existing line when the lift wire broke the instant pull on the umbilical caused a compromise in this external tubing so now they were without Communications and a diminishing supply of hot water but the gas line and depth gauges still seemed to be working properly the Bell team could see that the internal pressure of the Bell had increased indicating that the guys were both inside and they had increased the pressure to seal the door shut for now this was a somewhat stable situation the Air Supply was good and they also had emergency air tanks attached to the Bell normally in this situation a diving ship would Institute its secondary Bell recovery method in order to dive commercially ships were required to have a primary and secondary means of bell recovery in place in another devastating flaw of design the secondary method had to be disabled just weeks before the ship was designed for the Bell to be launched through a moonpool on the deck's surface unfortunately the designers weren't experienced with the rough North Sea nor the normal pitfalls of dropping a bell down a pool in the middle of the deck because of the storms they had been facing the Bell had to be dropped into the water over the side of the ship there was a nice crane system called a davit that could swing out over the water to launch the Bell that way unfortunately when the clump weight was hanging from the bottom it couldn't clear the deck railing the clump weight was the proper Bell launching mechanism but it also served as an emergency recovery system in case the lift wire broke this system included a heavy weight lowered on two guide wires once this weight hit the the seabed the Bell could be lowered to the proper depth on the guidelines this made for a stable path for the Bell without a lift wire the clump weight could be pulled back up by its guide wires and the bell recovered in a fairly routine manner the decision was made to just remove the clump weight system in order to clear the rail and launch the Bell into the water they had been using this method for weeks but made no efforts to rectify this dangerous situation now that Richard and Skip were safely in the bell with no lift wire or clump wait to bring them up options were being discussed on how to recover the Bell safely back in the Bell the men were following protocol they were locked in the Bell but had no Communications with the surface they continued to try to send messages but only heard static over the radio the air and hot water were still flowing so they just needed to sit tight and wait for a recovery operation to retrieve them suddenly they felt a jerking heave and then another they were in complete disbelief but it was obvious that that they were trying to recover the Bell using their most precious Lifeline skip yelled into the comms put us on the bottom put us on the bottom over and over he had no idea if it was getting through but he was desperate to protect the only connection that was keeping them alive on the wild rake the diving superintendent Holmes was under tremendous pressure to figure out what to do to recover the Bell he was well aware that the clump weight was not in service so they would have to rely on the only other method available to him the umbilical there were some bell systems where the umbilical could be used as an emergency recovery method but the wild rake was not necessarily one of them the company that had manufactured this ship had missed some important details about saturation diving bell construction and limitations in the operating conditions relying on their claim that the umbilical Hydraulics could handle the load was not reassuring they had manufactured an umbilical that had already failed with improper materials so this was a risky choice the owner of infab Brian Masterson was with hommes as they consulted the most experienced dive operations men to discuss Alternatives the safest choice would have been to lower the men to the seabed to relieve the pressure on the umbilical then request another ship to send their Bell divers down to reattach a lift wire to the top of the wild rake Bell at 2:57 in the morning they reached out to the nearest dive ship the Stena welder they only stated that they had an issue and to standby for potential assist distance ultimately they decided to try the umbilical first despite having another reasonable plan proposed during this time the men on Deck were trying to repair the hot water line to limit the amount that was being lost this work was stopped when they received the order to fire up the hydraulic motor on the umbilical wheel they were stunned by the request but were in no position to challenge the owner and dive superintendent the umbilical started pulling tightly and wrapping around the wheel but in just moments the stop order was given the men were in complete disbelief the umbilical was splitting open and the individual wires and tubes were now jammed in the side of the wheel they were deeply jammed and hot water was now spewing from this meat grinder this should have been the time to call in assistance and hope that the lift wire could be reconnected by the staino welder team but that's not what Masterson and Holmes decided they were still intent on using the umbilical to recover The Bell the wild rake had a crane on deck and they were going to use it they repeated the effort to pull the umbilical to lift the Bell up to the ship as soon as they started they were met with disaster yet again the umbilical was not only splitting apart the tubes and wires were literally snapping and popping apart during this crucial moment a faint transmission could be heard coming from the Bell The Voice strained requesting the Bell be set on the seabed skip had finally been heard inside the Bell Skip and Richard were shocked that the Bell had been yanked around by its umbilical but when the move movement stopped they knew that something terrible had happened the lights had gone out so they switched on the emergency battery power to take stock of their situation clearly the umbel had been damaged only two lines survived the trauma the main gas and the topside internal depth it was now 3:45 a. m.

and the clock had officially started ticking their hot water line had been severed and their most pressing issue would be hypothermia they followed procedures and opened their survival suits which turned out to be foil blankets and instead of the full bodysuits they expected at 4: the Stena welder was finally asked to make the rescue the two ships went back and forth with instructions and Equipment but by 5:45 the issues were resolved two Stena welder divers Eddie Frank and Phil Casey were heading down to connect the wire and make contact with Skip and Richard originally the welder group planned to lift the Bell themselves to help facilitate the transfer but Brian Masterson had something different in mind he directed them to to connect the wild rake's own lift wire to the bell and that he would be the one to rescue the men it seemed like a ludicrous suggestion to the diver superintendent on the St welder they were directly over the bell location for the safest lift angle and the wild rake would have to reel in the bell at a 45° angle which is completely unheard of in commercial diving it went against all best practices but Masterson wasn't a diver he was a businessman his compounding mistakes seemed to continue without anyone able to effectively the welders Bell was down at the Target area but had to search around for more than an hour to even locate the Bell when the wild rate crew gave the coordinates they forgot that they had moved the Bell away from the psalm Base hours earlier but forgot to update the location coordinates this might not have been a problem if the Bell transponder had been in place as it had been for the previous 29 Bell Dives the very night before when Skip and Richard were being lowered into the North Sea the transponder came loose from the outside of the Bell instead of pulling the Bell back and properly attaching the location device the deck hands were instructed to just cut it off they were in a hurry to get the bell in the water after many delays now that they are in this dire situation where every minute matters this waste of time was Unreal incorrect coordinates no transponder for locating it was left to Frank and Casey to walk in a wide Ark around their Bell to find the lost men in a terrible stroke of bad luck the stina welder was repairing their Bell just before the request for assistance was made so the lights outside their Bell didn't work and the comms from diver to Bell were also out this made the entire operation extremely cumbersome and dangerous for these men at 6:44 a. m.