A new way to die.... 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
What follows is a personal account as told to me by one of my instructors.
I was attending a professional divers cource at "The Ocean Corporation" in Houston TX twards the end of 1998. It's an interesting school where you learn not just standard SCUBA, but also Non-destructive testing, Saturation diving, decompression procedures using chambers, tethered diving with hats and diving bells, and underwater welding etc...
All of the instructors are previous divers in the industry. Most of which was off shore work for the major oil companies in the gulf of Mexico.
Now, obviously Diving can be extrememly dangerous, and professional diving is second only to a military career for deaths and injuries on a yearly basis. And this is even after haveing specific "safety" personell whose job it is to look for safety violators. However, there are times when even those with knowledge and training can do something collosially stupid. There were many stories like this one.
First, we'll start off with a hook. Not just any ole' hook, but one that is on an oil rig attached to the crane. It's normally used to lift items off of cargo ships, and move extremely heavy items around on deck. Now normally, these are all supposed to be safety hooks. That is, they have metal latch that secures the item inside the hook. This is a MUST off shore, where even light seas will bounce items around. Without the latch, something could bounce right off the hook, and fall. Very dangerous. And this was the first piece of stupidity.
Next, it's important to understand that when an oil rig digs a new hole into an oil field, it doesn't necessarily start pumping on it right away. The ones it "hits" and then decides for whatever reason to pump later, it puts a steel re-inforced cap on. This is what the diver was going to be working on at the time.
Now, if you drill and put a cap on the hole underwater, what happens is that over time, the oil and the floor will settle somewhat, and create a vacuum against the cap. It can be small or large, there's no real way to tell. But when a cap is pulled, it's standard procedure to make sure there is no one in the water.
Enter our contestant. His job was to take the hook for the crane, and hook it up to the cap. This is in approx. 100 feet of water. So he goes down, and puts it on, and comes out of the water. Simple enough.
The crane starts, and WHOOPS! the hook has come off, as it's missing the safety latch. So the diver has to go back down and put it on. Off he goes. He gets it back on, and then has the Bright Idea that just in case it slips again, he's going to be close by to put it back. Now, to be safe of cource, he essentially climbs a rope ladder about 30 feet or so UPWARDS. Stupidity #2.
He tells the folks topside to give it a go, and they tell him to come up. He convinces them it's perfectly safe, as he's well away from the cap. Of cource, everyone topside doesn't want to waste time, especially the company man, and they tell the crane guy to go for it.
You saw this comeing didn't you....
The hook caught, and the cap came off of the well. Now this particular cap was on a 16 inch diameter pipe. That pipe is designed to move a LOT of fluid VERY quickly. It had also had the cap on it for several MONTHS worth of settleing.
Oh ya... did I mention that the diver didn't even secure himself to the ladder with a simple safety latch?
Yep, you guessed it, the suction from the pipe was incredible, and it sucked the (I'm sure) very surprised diver right off of the ladder and into the pipe. Now the pipe being the size it was, obviously, he didn't fit into it too well, and they figger it had to have sucked in one leg, and had the other one stick straight up. But the suction was far more powerful then to just keep him there. It was assumed that between the suction from the pipe, and the water pressure from above was sufficient to burst his skin and organs, and essentially suck him from the inside out, right out of his suit.
The only item they were able to recover was his steel helmut which was too big for the pipe, and his tank of emergency air.
He however, was gone beyond recovery......
Well.... I suppose after they pumped the oil, technically, he would have been part of it, but not in any identifiable bits...
Martin Submitted on 01/03/2003
Submitted by:
Martin
Reference:
personal account.
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