Umbilical severed at 80 meters in North Sea

[John C. Ratliff]

Calm down hardhat sympathizers Just highlighting out the animosity between the hard hats and skin divers when skin divers came about and make those robbie the robot guys look clumsy.

Mr. Wang,

What you are referencing comes straight out of Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World, where in the early 1950s he compared the divers using an aqua-lung with hard hat divers (Greek sponge divers). This is so far back in the history of scuba diving that it really does not apply today.

Today's commercial divers are versed in all phases of diving, including scuba. These are the "ultimate" divers, and what happens to them is important to all divers. This particular incident shows remarkable courage, and a great deal of teamwork in order to save this diver. I would also like to say that there is not animosity toward commercial divers that I know of, except for your post. All the divers I know have the utmost respect for commercial divers, as these divers dive in circumstance and routinely use equipment most of us only dream using some day. These aren't the "robie the robot guys" who are clumsy, but guys who do the very difficult, tough, cold and dangerous work at depths up to probably 1000 feet, using saturation techniques that the U.S. Navy, Cousteau, Hannes Keller, Dr. Bond, Dr. Lambertson and many, many others have worked out over the years. They are the ultimate divers, and have my admiration for what they do routinely. That this man survived is indeed remarkable, and holds lessons for us all.

SeaRat

 

[DiveTheGalapagos]

Never had any tech diving desires, but this story is miraculous and this thread has been a fascinating read. 9 years with no fatalities in the North Sea seems like another miracle.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Mr. Wang,

What you are referencing comes straight out of Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World, where in the early 1950s he compared the divers using an aqua-lung with hard hat divers (Greek sponge divers). This is so far back in the history of scuba diving that it really does not apply today.

Today's commercial divers are versed in all phases of diving, including scuba. These are the "ultimate" divers, and what happens to them is important to all divers. This particular incident shows remarkable courage, and a great deal of teamwork in order to save this diver. I would also like to say that there is not animosity toward commercial divers that I know of, except for your post. All the divers I know have the utmost respect for commercial divers, as these divers dive in circumstance and routinely use equipment most of us only dream using some day. These aren't the "robie the robot guys" who are clumsy, but guys who do the very difficult, tough, cold and dangerous work at depths up to probably 1000 feet, using saturation techniques that the U.S. Navy, Cousteau, Hannes Keller, Dr. Bond, Dr. Lambertson and many, many others have worked out over the years. They are the ultimate divers, and have my admiration for what they do routinely. That this man survived is indeed remarkable, and holds lessons for us all.

SeaRat

Mr Rat,

LOL, been watching too many episodes of Sea Hunt. Seriously though, amazing that he survived such accident, and they are doing it as part of their everyday job.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Mr Rat,

LOL, been watching too many episodes of Sea Hunt. Seriously though, amazing that he survived such accident, and they are doing it as part of their everyday job.

Mr. Wang, thanks for clarifying. IALOL (I also laughed out loud) at your reply. When I was going through the U.S. Navy School for Underwater Swimmers in 1967, we would receive at a minimum 20 push-ups for doing anything identified with Mike Nelson, especially putting our mask on our forehead. To this day, I have difficulty putting my mask on my forehead. Those push-ups were to be done immediately, in whatever equipment configuration I had on at that moment. If we were wearing our twin AL 90s, that meant doing 20 push-ups with over 50 pounds on our backs. Mike Nelson was a TV hero, and not a real-life person who knew much about diving (Lloyd Bridges had stand-ins for the difficult diving work). Some of what he stated was in error, and made for TV. Saying that, I watched those episodes in real time as a teenager awaiting the time to swim on the YMCA Swim Team in Salem, Oregon. If you are interested in vintage diving, we have a very active vintage diving community forum here for Vintage Equipment Diving.

Note the masks still down as these two U.S. Naval School for Underwater Swimmers exit off Key West, FL in 1967 after a 1500 yard underwater compass swim.

Now, note Lloyd Bridges in his balsa wood tanks taking on the bad guy.

Commercial divers like this dive were at 80 meters working out of a bell, that's working at 260+ feet. They deserve our respect, as they are the ones who are keeping a lot of the oil rigs going.

SeaRat

 

[Akimbo]

... When I was going through the U.S. Navy School for Underwater Swimmers in 1967, we would receive at a minimum 20 push-ups for doing anything identified with Mike Nelson, especially putting our mask on our forehead...

Yeah, and for rust on your K-Bar (knife), being too slow, not using a slip release on double-D-rings, or putting your fins on backwards... there was no right or left fin but it was all the excuse needed to make you do push-ups. Ahh, the good old days

... Mike Nelson was a TV hero, and not a real-life person who knew much about diving (Lloyd Bridges had stand-ins for the difficult diving work). Some of what he stated was in error, and made for TV. ...

That's exactly what I though until this experience: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/sc...ode-aired-50-years-ago-today.html#post6058791

Granted he was not a diver when he was hired for Sea Hunt, but apparently he learned a lot and continued diving for many years. I suppose the rumor that he was just a "Hollywood pretty boy diver" became a convenient explanation for the "dramatic license" that laced every episode. I would want twin 50's made of Balsa wood by the fifth take too!

 

[Bombay High]

Akimbo, I was going to PM you with this, but I thought others might be interested. Please note wind speed and sea state -

INCIDENT TIMELINE: Bibby Offshore DSV Loses DP in 30 knots with divers below

Bibby Topaz:
Incident Date: 18/09/12.
Weather conditions: 30 knots, 316° Sea State: 5

The dive team of two men on the sea bed and a further man in the diving bell were carrying out testing within a subsea structure.

At 22.10 a series of alarms activated in the vessels wheelhouse in relation to the Dynamic Positioning (DP) system. The amber alarm was initiated by the Bridge and Dive Control was informed that the vessel had a problem with the DP System.

The Dive Supervisor immediately ordered the Divers to leave the structure and head back to the diving bell. Both divers had left the structure and were on top of the drilling template structure when there was loss of position by the vessel and it started to drift off location. The red light alarm was initiated; Dive control was informed and both divers instructed to get back to the bell stage as soon as and as safely as possible.

At this point Diver 2 noticed his umbilical had been snagged on the side of the subsea structure close to the top. He began trying to free his umbilical and requested slack.

At approximately 22:12 hrs, with the vessel still drifting all communications and video was lost to Diver 2. On the Bridge the DP operator, Chief Officer and Master were trying to regain control of the vessel by manual operation of the thrusters.

The Bridge was in communication with dive control and was informed that Diver 1 was safely back on the bell stage and that Diver 2’s umbilical had been severed. At this point Diver 2 had reverted to his standby breathing gas supply.

At 22.17 hrs the Bridge team had regained control of the vessel having drifted off approx 240m and made heading back towards a position directly above the subsea structure. The vessel was being driven manually by the Master.

The team monitored Diver 2’s locator beacon; this was seen to be located on top of the structure. The Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) headed back towards the drilling template and confirmed Diver 2’s location on top of the drilling template structure.

At 22:40 hrs the vessel was back in a position close to the drilling template. The bell was lowered as close as possible above the structure to assist with the recovery of Diver 2.

Diver 1 left the bell stage to begin recovery of Diver 2 back to the bell with the ROV closely monitoring the operation. Both Divers were on the bell stage at 22:46 hrs, with Diver 2 being recovered into the bell at 22:48 hrs.

With Diver 2 safely recovered into the bell the Bellman (Diver 3) reported that Diver 2 was unconscious but breathing. However as soon as his diving helmet was removed Diver 2 regained consciousness and was provided with hot water to his suit to warm him up.

The bell, bell umbilical and the bell wires were surveyed by the ROV for signs of damage that could potentially impede the safe recovery of the bell. Once this was complete the bell was recovered as per normal procedure. All Divers were transferred to the chamber system and treatment was provided to Diver 2 which included being put on therapeutic oxygen.

The Medic was in attendance in saturation control and communication was also established with the shore side Diving Doctor. After consultation with the medical team a routine decompression schedule of the dive team commenced.

Decompression was completed on the 22^nd September following which all Divers were given a thorough check by a doctor. Diver 2 also attended hospital for further checks on 23^rd September and all Divers have received a clean bill of health.

Bibby Offshore would like to praise the skill, professionalism and expertise of the crew of the Bibby Topaz in carrying out the safe recovery of Diver 2.​

---------- Post Merged at 05:58 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 05:56 PM ----------

Calm down hardhat sympathizers Just highlighting out the animosity between the hard hats and skin divers when skin divers came about and make those robbie the robot guys look clumsy.

You sure your name ends with a 'G' not a 'K' ?

 

[Akimbo]

…Decompression was completed on the 22^nd September following which all Divers were given a thorough check by a doctor. Diver 2 also attended hospital for further checks on 23^rd September and all Divers have received a clean bill of health…

:banana: :bounce3: :dance3: :luxhello:

That's what we been wait'n for! (US-centric slang)

…Weather conditions: 30 knots, 316° Sea State: 5…

Welcome to another work day in the North Sea

Degree	Height (m)	Description
	no wave	Calm (Glassy)
1	0 - 0.10	Calm (Rippled)
2	0.10 - 0.50	Smooth
3	0.50 - 1.25	Slight
4	1.25 - 2.50	Moderate
5	2.50 - 4.00 (8.2' – 13.1')	Rough
6	4.00 - 6.00	Very Rough
7	6.00 - 9.00	High
8	9.00 - 14.00	Very High
9	14.00+	Phenomenal

This incident has the potential to be one of the greatest learning exercises in the last 20 years for saturation diving.

 

[Bombay High]

This incident has the potential to be one of the greatest learning exercises in the last 20 years for saturation diving.

Absolutely ... and considering that a lot of the lessons learnt in the past paid a very high price in terms of lives lost, this one is a very very cheap lesson. Some butt clenching moments for all involved.
I think there may be a move to have captains train for non computer aided positioning just to deal with these kind of situations.
Sobering thought, that a few more minutes may have ended Chris' life.

 

[Akimbo]

... I think there may be a move to have captains train for non computer aided positioning just to deal with these kind of situations...

Is there such a thing? Even using a manual joy-stick requires a computer to translate signals to the mains and thrusters doesn't it??? I suppose they could head into the weather and run mostly on the mains, but even that could move the moonpool off station 150' or more.

Have you ever been aboard when DP (Dynamic Positioning) was lost? I would think that it would be pretty rare these days (not that constant vigilance and failure procedures are not essential).

BTW, thanks again for the news. You have made my day.

 

[Bombay High]

BTW, thanks again for the news. You have made my day.

Made my day as well

---------- Post Merged at 01:26 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 01:23 PM ----------

Have you ever been aboard when DP (Dynamic Positioning) was lost? I would think that it would be pretty rare these days (not that constant vigilance and failure procedures are not essential).

I haven't, but I have met personally a few who have been. They were all fortunate in the fact that they didn't have crazy weather (30 KTS and 4 meter seas). Always curls my toes thinking about it.

---------- Post Merged at 01:29 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 01:23 PM ----------

Is there such a thing? Even using a manual joy-stick requires a computer to translate signals to the mains and thrusters doesn’t it??? I suppose they could head into the weather and run mostly on the mains, but even that could move the moonpool off station 150' or more.
.

I am no expert, but I have heard of guys training to operate the thrusters manually by joystick, but I suppose if all electronics went down, you are in big trouble anyway.