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   Clutha🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (clutha@mastodon.scot)'s status on Wednesday, 10-Jul-2024 22:20:15 JST Clutha🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

   • Mrs Cloudy
   • Martin D :Scot_IrnBru:

   @ginger_tosser @CloudyMrs
   1/
   I’d just landed on the Brent Delta off a Chinook when we heard about the Chinook crash near Sumburgh. We all rushed to phone home. My wife was out in the car a heard news on radio, had to pull over unable to drive for a bit. I managed to phone neighbour who’d also heard news. She didn’t manage to catch my wife when she arrived home. Phoning office, person answering said they’d have to go thru list of names. Wife told them I was going offshore, not returning.

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     Mrs Cloudy (cloudymrs@mastodon.scot)'s status on Sunday, 07-Jul-2024 06:10:49 JST Mrs Cloudy

     The Piper Alpha oil platform disaster in the North Sea on July 6, 1988, killed 167 people. It's the first disaster that I can remember where I was when I heard the news.

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     Geoff 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (_thegeoff@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 07-Jul-2024 16:53:45 JST Geoff 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

     in reply to

     • Mrs Cloudy

     @CloudyMrs Oddly, don't remember that one. Challenger, Hillsborough, yes, but I don't recall hearing about Piper Alpha. Dad switched jobs to the HSE's offshore department at pretty much exactly that time, his introduction to the job was the investigation. I had Piper Beta T shirts as a kid, because they felt uncomfortable with the name "Piper Bravo" for a while, as it sounded celebratory.

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     Mrs Cloudy (cloudymrs@mastodon.scot)'s status on Sunday, 07-Jul-2024 16:53:45 JST Mrs Cloudy

     in reply to

     • Geoff 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

     @_thegeoff I'd just started my first job after leaving school. I heard it on the radio when I got to work and then updates every hour, all day.

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     Mrs Cloudy (cloudymrs@mastodon.scot)'s status on Wednesday, 10-Jul-2024 22:20:13 JST Mrs Cloudy

     in reply to

     • Martin D :Scot_IrnBru:

     @Clutha @ginger_tosser awful memories. Sorry you had that terrible experience.

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     Clutha🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (clutha@mastodon.scot)'s status on Wednesday, 10-Jul-2024 22:20:14 JST Clutha🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

     in reply to

     • Mrs Cloudy
     • Martin D :Scot_IrnBru:

     @ginger_tosser @CloudyMrs
     2/
     I’d not long transferred from Brent Charlie to Delta, knew majority of casualties, some very well.
     Boss got me off to attend funerals.
     What got to me most was the children of deceased attending, weeping uncontrollably.
     After attending 7 funerals in just over a week I couldn’t take any more.

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     Clutha🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (clutha@mastodon.scot)'s status on Wednesday, 10-Jul-2024 23:22:41 JST Clutha🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

     in reply to

     • Mrs Cloudy
     • Martin D :Scot_IrnBru:

     @CloudyMrs @ginger_tosser
     Thank you.
     Norwegian oil sector had stopped using Chinook helicopters well before UK.
     They were the most uncomfortable aircraft I’ve ever flown in, like sardines tins.
     The flight to the Brent field was 3 hours. They told us they could float if they had to land on water. One had to do it due to problems and the water came rushing in, the very skilful pilot managed to ‘drive’ it over to a platform and everyone got off, if a bit wet.