The Evolution of Offshore Emergency Response

On the evening of July 6, 1988, a gas leak ignited on the Piper Alpha platform in the North Sea. The explosion damaged the control room and destroyed power, alarm, and firewater systems. The platform’s emergency response plan quickly became irrelevant as the public address system failed and walls of flame blocked access to lifeboats. Dozens of crew members waited in accommodation modules for instructions that would never come.

Tharos, the emergency response vessel specifically designed to respond to such a disaster on the Piper Alpha within just 4 minutes, took 45 minutes to get its pumps up and running. Meanwhile,