Leaping From a Burning Oil Rig: Piper Alpha Down

Summary

Real Survival Stories: Leaping From a Burning Oil Rig: Piper Alpha Down

Podcast Information

• Title: Real Survival Stories
• Host: John Hopkins
• Production: Joel Duddell, Ed Baranski, Luke Lonergan, Miri Latham, Jacob Booth, Rob Plummer, Cian Ryan-Morgan, Cody Reynolds-Shaw
• Composers: Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink
• Episode: Leaping From a Burning Oil Rig: Piper Alpha Down
• Release Date: March 13, 2025

Summary

Real Survival Stories delves into the harrowing events of the Piper Alpha disaster through the firsthand account of offshore oil worker Joe Meenan. This episode masterfully intertwines Joe's personal narrative with detailed historical context, revealing the human and technical factors that culminated in one of the deadliest offshore oil rig accidents in history.

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Introduction to the Disaster

The episode opens with a vivid description of the Piper Alpha oil rig on July 6, 1988. Positioned 125 miles off the northeast coast of Scotland in the North Sea, Piper Alpha was a massive steel structure designed to endure harsh winter storms. However, beneath its robust exterior, a series of human errors and mechanical failures set the stage for catastrophe.

Key Points:

• Setting: North Sea, calm conditions described as "La Mer de Whil Sea of oil."
• Rig Operations: Production modules contain highly pressurized hydrocarbons.
• Initial Fault: Safety relief valve removed for repairs, leading to hazardous pressure buildup.

Notable Quote:

"With the safety valve removed and the end of the pipe sealed off by a temporary steel cap, there's nowhere for the gas to go. It collects at the end of the pipe, the pressure building and building until just before 10pm the dam breaks." – Narrator [00:39]

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The First Explosion

As evening falls, Joe Meenan, a 29-year-old scaffolder, is unwinding with colleagues in the rig’s cinema room. Unbeknownst to them, a series of missteps triggers a massive explosion, igniting a deadly fire.

Key Points:

• Joe's Role: Responsible for construction and maintenance on the rig.
• Initial Explosion: Caused by a surge of liquefied gas ignited by an electrical spark.
• Joe's Experience: Describes the explosion's physical impact and immediate aftermath.

Notable Quote:

"You can actually feel the energy coming through the floor, actually coming through your seat and all of a sudden there was a huge explosion. The whole platform rocked back forward." – Joe Meenan [04:12]

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Chaos and Confusion

In the immediate aftermath, the rig plunges into chaos. Alarms fail to activate, leaving workers disoriented and panicked amidst rising smoke and intense heat. Management's attempts to maintain order are futile as the situation deteriorates rapidly.

Key Points:

• Lack of Communication: No alarms or announcements post-explosion.
• Panic Sets In: Workers struggle to understand the severity of the fire.
• Structural Failures: Steel begins to warp under extreme heat, compromising the rig's integrity.

Notable Quote:

"There was no alarms went off, there was no tannoys went out and it's really quite confusing. Nobody's getting any information what's happening." – Joe Meenan [19:07]

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Desperate Escape Attempts

Realizing that traditional evacuation methods are compromised, Joe and his fellow scaffolders decide to take matters into their own hands. They navigate through the burning rig towards the heli deck, encountering intense smoke, heat, and additional explosions that further endanger their lives.

Key Points:

• Failed Evacuation: Lifeboats and helicopters rendered unusable due to smoke and fire.
• Joe's Decision: Chooses to jump from the heli deck into the North Sea, a perilous six-time higher fall than safety trainings recommended.
• Survival Against Odds: Despite severe burns from heat radiation, Joe survives the plunge and rescues himself by reaching a floating life jacket.

Notable Quotes:

"It was like somebody flicking a switch, you know, on a light switch on or something and sort of just took over what I was doing." – Joe Meenan [37:33]

"You know you could realize there's no chance any helicopters even coming near this platform, never mind landing on the platform because the smoke was so intense." – Joe Meenan [28:32]

---

Aftermath and Rescue

Joe's desperate leap and subsequent survival are narrated with emotional intensity. He describes the physical injuries sustained, the shock of the second explosion, and the grim reality that many of his colleagues did not survive. Rescue operations eventually reach the survivors, bringing them back to the mainland.

Key Points:

• Rescue Operations: MSV Tharos, the support vessel, struggles to control the fire while rescue helicopters arrive.
• Joe's Injuries: Severe burns on hands and arms from heat radiation during the fall.
• Survivor Accounts: Emotional recounting of lost colleagues and the traumatic aftermath.

Notable Quote:

"I didn't really know what was going to happen next. I was just throwing myself in here. I'm black hole, basically." – Joe Meenan [39:59]

---

Impact and Legacy

The Piper Alpha disaster resulted in 167 fatalities, marking it as the worst offshore disaster in history. The official inquiry highlighted significant lapses in safety protocols and management negligence. In the aftermath, Joe Meenan became an advocate for offshore worker safety, contributing to lasting changes in industry regulations.

Key Points:

• Inquiry Findings: Initial gas leak ignited by an electrostatic spark; failure of safety measures.
• Consequences: Occidental Petroleum held liable; compensation awarded.
• Legacy: Introduction of new emergency protocols and heightened safety standards influenced by survivors' testimonies.

Notable Quote:

"It's amazingly how quickly, you know, the rehabilitation kicks in... It makes me feel quite proud and it makes me feel as if I maybe doing something for that 167 guys that never made it that night." – Joe Meenan [51:08]

---

Personal Reflections and Healing

Joe reflects on the psychological aftermath of the disaster, grappling with survivor's guilt and the collective grief felt by all who lost loved ones. Despite initial resilience, the emotional toll surfaces years later, illustrating the enduring impact of such traumatic events.

Key Points:

• Emotional Struggles: Overwhelming grief during Christmas 1988.
• Community Support: Fellow survivors providing solace and understanding.
• Long-Term Effects: Differing coping mechanisms among survivors, with Joe maintaining a strong sense of purpose in advocating for safety.

Notable Quote:

"I was overwhelmed with grief and I just sat there and cried... It was quite a good thing to get it out, you know. But, yeah, it does catch up with everybody at different stages and different times." – Joe Meenan [47:36]

---

Conclusion

Real Survival Stories’ episode on the Piper Alpha disaster offers a compelling and comprehensive account of Joe Meenan’s survival and the broader implications of the tragedy. By intertwining personal narrative with historical analysis, the episode not only honors the memory of those lost but also underscores the critical importance of safety and preparedness in high-risk industries.

Final Note: This episode serves as a powerful reminder of human resilience and the necessity of stringent safety protocols to prevent such disasters in the future.

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Upcoming Episode Teaser:
Next week, meet Justine Barwick, a 47-year-old care worker from Australia, whose peaceful swim turns into a fight for survival after a monstrous attack. Tune in to hear her gripping story of resilience and hope.

Listen Now: Subscribe to Noiser+ to access episodes a week early and enjoy ad-free listening. Visit noiser.com/subscriptions for more information.

Transcript

[John Hopkins]

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[Joe Meenan]

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[John Hopkins]

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[Joe Meenan]

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[John Hopkins]

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[Joe Meenan]

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[John Hopkins]

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[Joe Meenan]

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[John Hopkins]

It's Wednesday, July 6, 1988. One hundred and twenty five miles off the northeast coast of Scotland, the lights of an offshore drilling platform glimmer on the dark surface of the North Sea. Rising 200ft above the waterline, the Piper Alpha is a towering steel behemoth, a bulky cubic construction of yellow painted girders, pipes and scaffolding. The sturdy rig is built to withstand the battering storms of a North Sea winter. But right now the ocean is calm. The sky is a deep, inky blue, the last residue of daylight glowing at the base of the horizon. French sailors have a name for conditions like these. When the ocean is this tranquil and glassy, they call it La Mer de Whil Sea of oil. Down in the rig's production modules, the air thrums with machinery. Inside this complex system of tubes and cylinders, powerful forces are contained and corralled, highly pressurized hydrocarbons sucked from the earth's crust, now captive within steel pipes. Given the combustible nature of oil and gas, every step of the extraction process must be strictly regulated, every step carefully overseen. But down in Production module C, something is wrong. A safety relief valve, which prevents excessive pressure from building up within the pipework, was removed for repairs earlier today. As such, the pump that controls the flow of liquefied gas through this pipe is shut down. But due to a combination of bad luck and human error, that pump has just been brought back online without its safety valve. As an oblivious technician activates the pump from the control room, thousands of gallons of liquefied gas begin to surge through the pipe. With the safety valve removed and the end of the pipe sealed off by a temporary steel cap, there's nowhere for the gas to go. It collects at the end of the pipe, the pressure building and building until just before 10pm the dam breaks. Oily yellow jets spurt from a hairline crack around the seal. Within seconds, C module is flooded with highly flammable liquid gas. From here, it only takes a tiny electrical spark. For divers doing maintenance work for 50ft underwater, the explosion comes as a flash of white light and a bang that punches through the silence of the deep. For the men working on board, the support boat started around the platform. The dusk is briefly illuminated by a ring of pale blue flames with a surge of blistering heat. For 29 year old Joe Meanan, relaxing and watching a film with colleagues on board the rig, the explosion is preceded by a series of deep tremors followed by an ear shattering blast.

[Joe Meenan]

You can actually feel the energy coming through the floor, actually coming through your seat and all of a sudden there was a huge explosion. The whole platform rocked back forward. You actually didn't know what had happened. You just knew something horrendous had happened.

[John Hopkins]

Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode we meet offshore oil worker Joe Meenan. In the summer of 1988, Joe is stationed on the Piper Alpha oil rig in the North Sea. Since drilling began here in 1976, it has become one of the busiest rigs in the world. At one stage producing more than 300,000 barrels of crude oil every day, 10% of Britain's total usage. It's a hive of incessant industry around the clock drilling operation optimized for the relentless pursuit of profit, whatever the cost. But on July 6, 1988, a catastrophic fire breaks out on the platform and the 226 people stationed on board will be thrust into a hell on earth. As the conflagration grows around him, Joe will have to make a terrifying decision. Stay patient and put his faith in the remote chance of rescue or take his survival into his own hands straight away.

[Joe Meenan]

You know you could realize that it's not just any helicopters even coming near this platform, never mind landing on the platform because the smoke was so intense. I thought, well, that's it, I'm dead here.

[John Hopkins]

I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Podcast Network. This is Real survival stories. It's 9:30pm in the North Sea. Wednesday, July 6, 1988. 125 miles northeast of Aberdeen, Scotland. The Piper Alpha is a metallic beast standing in the waves. The rig is so vast it has its own helipad, living quarters and even cinema room. Here a group of off shift workers are watching a movie. This evening's entertainment is the comedy Caddyshack. And it's a popular choice. There's barely an empty seat in the house. In the audience, his round, amiable face creased with laughter, is 29 year old Joe Meanon. Joe is a scaffolder. He and his colleagues are responsible for construction work and maintenance around the oil rig. It's a challenging job, but Joe's used to it. He's worked on North Sea drilling platforms for the last six years and he's grown accustomed to the hardships of life offshore, from the cramped conditions to the extreme weather.

[Joe Meenan]

I went offshore for the first time in 1982. We just kind of got moved around and RC, as you know, contracts, new contracts were negotiated. We just moved about as we were needed. So that's just the nature of the job I was in.

[John Hopkins]

The idea of going where you're needed, of taking opportunities where you can get them, was nothing new to Joe when he started out. His father had been a construction worker. And in the late 1960s he had moved the family from their Glasgow tenement to East Kilbride, one of several new towns developed by the government to accommodate the growing population after World War II.

[Joe Meenan]

My dad got a job up in East Kilbride. Cause that's part of the criteria back then. You had to work in the new town to get a house. And yeah, East Kilbride was great. It was out the countryside, had a good upbringing there, loads of families with kids, all about the same ages, you know, so yeah, it was good.

[John Hopkins]

While his childhood was a happy one, as he and his sister grew older, rising local crime rates became a cause of concern for their parents.

[Joe Meenan]

Unfortunately, back in that days, there was a lot of gang problems in Glasgow, East Kilbride, such like. And once you came into adulthood, you could have went in a few different directions. Some good, some not so good.

[John Hopkins]

When Joe was 17, his family moved again, this time to the village of Stonehaven, just south of Aberdeen. And with the move came economic opportunity. A few years prior, petroleum had been discovered beneath the bedrock of the North Sea and the port town of Aberdeen had become Europe's oil capital. Joe's father was one of thousands of men who flocked to work off the northeast coast, where lucrative wages beckoned in the heady days of the mid-1970s as big energy companies rushed to set up drilling operations in the North Sea. Finding work offshore was as simple as turning up at the heliport.

[Joe Meenan]

They all joked like it was, get to the heliport and get £200, you know, you'll pass go, you know, better let Monopoly so Yeah, absolutely. It was kind of back then, there was endless cash going through Aberdeen. Money was no object.

[John Hopkins]

After finishing school, Joe followed his father into the construction trade with a view to finding employment in the booming oil and gas industry. For the first couple of years, he stuck to working on land. The pay was lower, but the demands were less extreme. Everyone knew offshore work was a different beast. But then in 1981, his father died. In his early 20s, Joe suddenly found himself responsible for others beside himself.

[Joe Meenan]

Yeah, I suppose it's just coming head of the family or whatever, you know, and just taking that bit more responsibility when you're 20, 21, 22, 23, you know, moving forward.

[John Hopkins]

A year after his dad passed away, Joe went to work offshore for the first time. Despite years of hearing stories about life on the platforms, nothing could have prepared him for his first glimpse of a rig. It was like an island of steel rising from the waves. Its very presence seemed to defy physics.

[Joe Meenan]

My first experiences were a real eye opener and, oh, how these things, you know, how are they even here, the construction of them. They're sitting in the middle of the North Sea, especially during the wintertime, you've got some horrendous weather conditions. You've got 60 foot waves hitting the side of the platform, you've got 60, 70 mile an hour winds.

[John Hopkins]

Offshore work is not for the faint hearted. Joe spends his days operating machinery at perilous heights, scaling 200 foot scaffolds to conduct maintenance work, often in the teeth of fierce North Sea gales. Extensive safety training minimizes the risk of accidents. But when you're working with flammable substances like oil and gas, there are some dangers that no amount of training can mitigate. Four years ago, in 1984, a ruptured gas riser on the Piper Alpha triggered a massive fire. Though no one was killed in the blaze, the accident raised serious questions about safety on the platform, and in particular, the potentially catastrophic consequences of a prolonged high pressure gas fire. An official memo advised various improvements to the existing safety protocols, but the recommendations were largely ignored by management, who maintained that the threats were not serious enough to justify the expense. In any case, for Joe and his colleagues, the risks are like the bad weather and the isolation. Unfortunately, they're part of the job.

[Joe Meenan]

You just got used to. It was just a matter of course and we probably should have been more aware. That was one of my regrets afterwards. Should have been more aware of how dangerous the situation where I was working. I should have been more aware of that and taking that a lot more seriously.

[John Hopkins]

It's the night of July 6, 1988. Back in the cinema room on the Piper Alpha, Joe crosses one leg over the other and chuckles at the movie. Given the intense nature of the job, offshore riggers work on a fortnightly rotation. Two weeks at sea, two weeks on land, providing essential downtime. Joe's only got a couple of days left of this rotation. On Friday evening, he'll board the helicopter and fly back to the mainland. Unlike many of his colleagues, he doesn't have a wife or kids back home, but he's looking forward to the break all the same. Joe turns to the guys next to him, fellow scafs with whom he's grown close over the years, and laughs along with the banter.

[Joe Meenan]

I kind of got in with a good crowd of folk and scaffolders are kind of like that, you know, they'll look after each other. It was just camaraderie. You made the best of it. Everybody knew they were in the same situation. We all knew what we were doing and we were there for two weeks. So we just made the best of it and, you know, just kept going.

[Narrator]

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[John Hopkins]

Joe checks the time. It's a little before 10pm he stifles a yawn and settles back in his chair. He should probably get some sleep soon. Another busy day awaits tomorrow. But just then a sound like rumbling thunder reverberates through the room. Joe looks away from the screen, his brow furrowed.

[Joe Meenan]

About 40 minutes or so, 45 minutes into the movie, you could hear a successive flaring going on outside from the flare booms and it was that loud, that drowned out sound of the movie and silence fell over the cinema.

[John Hopkins]

Flaring is a common occurrence on any oil rig, a means of burning off excess gas produced in the drilling process. But Joe has never heard it flare so violently or for such an extended period. It sounds like a turbo jet engine, a thunderous flamethrower like roar. Eventually the flaring stops. After exchanging a few tentative glances, the men turn their attention back to the film.

[Joe Meenan]

The noise started getting back up in the cinema again, you know, the laughter and all that. And then maybe a minute or so it started up again even more intense. You can actually feel the energy coming through the floor, actually coming through your seat. And all of a sudden there was a huge explosion.

[John Hopkins]

A volley of sonic waves rips through the floor. The ground jolts violently. Lights tumble from their fixtures. Metal panels fall from the ceiling. The projector screen crumples and for a few surreal seconds, the film is being shone onto a bare wall. Then the power goes out and the cinema falls into darkness. After the initial blast, an eerie stillness has been left in its wake. A silence filled only by the deep, heavy breathing of the shaken men.

[Joe Meenan]

Within maybe 10 to 15 seconds, the emergency lighting came on. So it was a matter of, Right lads, let's calm down here now. Let's get in an orderly fashion and get back out into the main accommodation.

[John Hopkins]

Joe joins the agitated crowds flooding the hallway up to the main accommodation block. The air is warm with smoke. Clearly there's a fire burning somewhere on the lower levels. So why are there no alarms? Joe listens out for an announcement over the tannoy, but nothing comes.

[Joe Meenan]

There was no alarms went off, there was no tannoys went out and it's really quite confusing. Nobody's getting any information what's happening.

[John Hopkins]

As more bodies fill the hallway, their progress up to the accommodation block slows. Joe cranes his neck to see past the jostling crowds. The stench of burning oil sears his throat and eyes and tendrils of smoke now visibly drift through the gaps in the metal grill flooring. The air is becoming hot and scratchy to breathe. Up ahead, where the traffic is bottlenecked, panic is breaking out. People are running in different directions, crashing into each other in a narrow, dimly lit corridor with no announcements, it's unclear what the best course of action is. Joe decides to move away from the gaggle. He hurries down a flight of stairs that leads to the west side of the platform where the lifeboats are located. He uses the handrails to steady himself as he descends the steps. The steel banisters are already warm to the touch. Joe's footsteps quicken, eager to reach the lifeboat station. But he never gets there.

[Joe Meenan]

As I moved over to the west side of the platform, there's people coming back saying, there's no chance. You can't get out that way. The smoke and the heat is too extreme.

[John Hopkins]

Soot flecked faces pass him in the stairwell, their eyes red from the smoke, their hair singed from the heat of the flames. He spins around and follows them back upstairs.

[Joe Meenan]

The main kind of consensus was most people were heading up to the galley area. The galley area was a designated safe area. It was fireproofed and it had a positive airflow.

[John Hopkins]

The galley is the canteen and kitchen area where the workers have their meals. Joe pushes forward, moving with a crush of bodies in the smoky haze. The men walk in single file, their chins pressed into their chests. They grip the shoulder of the man in front with one hand and cover their mouths with the other. The galley is located near the top of the platform, just below the heli deck. It's the place they've been told to go to in the event of an emergency. Joe ascends a flight of stairs and emerges into the crowded galley. There must be over 100 men packed in here. They're all huddled together in groups of three or four, throwing frightened glances at the windows where the fires radiate has turned the surface of the sea into liquid gold. Joe scans the room, but he doesn't recognize any of the faces staring back at him.

[Joe Meenan]

All of a sudden the door on the right hand side of me burst open and this guy came in and shouted, is there anybody here from Bodens? And Bodens was the actual drilling crew. You know, they'd done all the drilling for the oil on the platform, and somebody recognized his voice and shouted, we're over here, Mark. Get yourself over here. So he went away. He headed over there. I thought, well, that's a good idea. So I shouted out, is there any scaffolders here?

[John Hopkins]

After a pause, there's an answering cry from the far side of the galley. Joe picks his way through the bodies over to where the scaffolders are gathered. He nods grimly at his colleagues, glad to be reunited with some familiar faces around the room. A few angry voices start to rise. There's a handful of management personnel up here in the galley, each encircled by dozens of frightened, incensed workers, all demanding answers.

[Joe Meenan]

One of the senior managers on the platform shouted that Bina Mayday sent Out which there had been from the radio room just after the first explosion. And there should be helicopters here within the next half an hour to come and rescue us. So just stay where youse are, guys.

[John Hopkins]

The management staff urge patience and appeal to protocol, but it's clear from their disturbed expressions that this is uncharted territory for them too. Thick clouds of acrid smoke now fill the galley. To escape the fumes, some men lie face down or shelter beneath the long Formica tables. A few of the scaffolders have taken wet rags from the kitchen, holding them clamped over their mouths. They advise Joe to do the same. He runs over to the sink and picks up a tea towel, but when he turns the tap, all he gets are a few drops.

[Joe Meenan]

There was only dribbles of water coming out of it. Whether I had been not really realizing how bad the situation we were in or some kind of defensive thing in my mind, but when I realized, you know, when I turned on the tap and there was only dribbles of water coming out, I'm thinking, now we've got no power, we've got no water, we've got nothing to fight this fire with. Now we're really in a bad situation.

[John Hopkins]

It's 10:15pm A quarter of an hour since the explosion. The temperature in the galley is rising. Beyond the windows, angry flames flicker like forked tongues. Joe stands in the corner with the scaffolders, their eyes darting from the windows to the floor, which is beginning to heat up beneath their feet. There have still been no announcements, no evacuation plan, even though it's become clear that this fire has not been contained and is steadily engulfing the entire platform. Among some men, the mood has turned dark, their outlook growing increasingly bleak.

[Joe Meenan]

Some folks started to realize that there possibly would there be a chance that we weren't going to get off that night? And some of the guys were starting to get a bit worried, having some negative thoughts, which I tried to say, no, no, that's not going to happen.

[John Hopkins]

Joe echoes the words of the senior staff. They just have to stay calm and follow orders. There are helicopters stationed on the support vessels for emergency evacuations. Fire protocol dictates that if the lifeboats can't be launched, then an airlift will be arranged instead. But as the minutes pass and the tension rises, the question on everybody's lips grows more urgent. Where are the helicopters? Things are getting desperate.

[Joe Meenan]

The steel structure of the platform was starting to lose its strength, starting to bend, and therefore it was twisting the platform. There was windows breaking, there was glass breaking, there was windows getting smashed.

[John Hopkins]

When heated to over 800 degrees Celsius, the nature of steel changes. As the molecules expand, the metal becomes flexible, semi molten. And with the inferno building throughout the platform, the structural integrity of the rig has started to fail. Suddenly the emergency lights blink out and the room is plunged into blackness. Joe looks over at his colleagues, his friends. The fire through the glass illuminates their faces with a throbbing orange glow. After a pause, one of the scavs turns to the other with an ultimatum.

[Joe Meenan]

Well, if we stay in here guys, and anything else happens, we'll not be in a position to do for ourselves. Why don't we go outside and climb up on the hell a deck and see if we can see anything for ourselves.

[John Hopkins]

The plan is agreed. Swiftly, the scaffolders make their way through the galley towards the exit. As they go, Joe spots a group of guys he recognizes. He calls out to them.

[Joe Meenan]

I see some Hughes guys not coming with us. And they look to each other and they said no, we're being told to stay. We're just going to stay. Says okay, good luck. Cheese guys.

[John Hopkins]

Joe follows his co workers through the double doors and onto the open deck. Immediately he is enveloped by a suffocating smog of sickly black smoke. A shimmering heat haze rises above the fire which is spilled out beyond the lower decks and billowed up around the rig. Red flames coil around the guardrails. Joe looks up at the heli deck and something terrifying becomes apparent straight away.

[Joe Meenan]

You know you could realize there's no chance any helicopters even coming near this platform, never mind landing on the platform because the smoke was so intense. It was thick black oil based smoke fire. Even if they did get on the platform, you could imagine the panic there would have been people trying to scramble to get on a helicopter. It would never have happened.

[John Hopkins]

That's that then. No lifeboats, no helicopters. If they're going to escape the burning rig, they'll have to find another way.

[Narrator]

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[John Hopkins]

It's 10:20pm in the North Sea. On board a support vessel stationed in the waves a short distance from the Piper Alpha, it's all hands to the pumps. Dubbed upon her launch as the most expensive fire engine in the world, MSV Tharos is desperately needed right now. After the crew moves the vessel into position, the water cannon on deck splutters into life. A huge white jet erupts from the nozzle and arcs through the air, bridging the 75 meter gap between the Tharros and the platform. The men on board the support vessel watch tensely as water rains down on Peiper, sizzling against the red hot metal. The crew has never witnessed a blaze of this magnitude. It's a horrifying sight. A ballooning fireball wreathed in dark gray smoke. The efforts of their water hosts feel futile. Meanwhile, on the top deck of the Piper Alpha, Joe and his fellow scaffolders make their way through a labyrinth of mesh walkways and access doors. After realizing that the smoke was preventing the rescue choppers from touching down on the heli deck, they've decided to climb to higher ground.

[Joe Meenan]

Somebody suggested, let's go along to the radio room. The radio room was adjacent to the heli deck. It was like inverted container. So we climbed up the roof of that because that was the highest point we could get to in that area. And this thick black smoke was coming over and it was almost like if you're on the beach and you're watching the sea coming in the waves, thick black smoke was coming in waves and every so often there'd be a gap in the waves. So you stand up and grab a breath of fresh air.

[John Hopkins]

Joe crouches on the roof of the radio room. Through intermittent gaps in the smoke, he glimpses the dark blue evening sky. Maybe if a helicopter could hover above their new vantage point, it could drop a rope down with a harness and hoist the men to Safety, that is, if they can see it through the smoke. Then out of nowhere, a droplet of cold water lands on Joe's scalding skin.

[Joe Meenan]

The Tharus, a support vessel that had a water cannon right at the top of one of the cranes and it was fanning back and forward on paper and it was catching us up on top of this radio room, soaking. We're closed and we're here.

[John Hopkins]

Atharos water cannon sprays across the eastern side of the platform. Some of the men fall to their knees and spread their arms wide, gratefully soaking themselves in cooling water. But as Joe watches the jets slam against the metal framework, a new danger presents itself.

[Joe Meenan]

They were that powerful, these water cannons. If they'd hit somebody on the platform, they would. If they had killed them, they would have severely injured them.

[John Hopkins]

It would be a cruelly ironic way to go. Staying on the exposed roof of the radio room is just too risky.

[Joe Meenan]

Somebody suggested, right, why don't we go over the west side of the platform? Maybe the thoroughs could move a bit closer. We could climb onto the crane, claim down on us. It was, I mean it was desperate situation.

[John Hopkins]

Right now. Any idea is better than staying put. They descend from the roof of the radio room and start heading west. Periodically their route is blocked by some blazing obstruction, forcing them to find an alternative path. They turn back and pass beneath the the shadow of the oil derrick, a vast crane like structure that towers over the platform and is now lit up like a funeral pyre. Joe wipes a curtain of sweat from his brow. Which is when there is another almighty bang as a second massive explosion rips through the night.

[Joe Meenan]

We actually didn't know what had happened. You just knew. Something horrendous had turned.

[John Hopkins]

A high pressure gas pipeline has just ruptured, instantly releasing the equivalent of the entire annual gas consumption of the uk. A colossal fireball surges into the sky, wrapping the rig and the men on board in a canopy of superheated air. For Joe, the shock of the blast jolts him into a strange kind of clarity. Quickly he runs to the radio mast and starts clambering up, away from his colleagues who scatter in the wake of the explosion.

[Joe Meenan]

I don't think it was panic. It didn't feel like panic, but I knew what it was doing. It was a silly thing it was doing because it was going nowhere.

[John Hopkins]

The sky above him glows with a pale red twilight. Below, the screams of wounded men merge with the roar and crackle of the flames. Joe climbs and climbs, the metal scorching, his hands gripped by an instinct that tells him to go higher, away from the bonfire of steel burning below. But then his foot slips. He instinctively closes his fingers around the bar as his feet thrash in midair.

[Joe Meenan]

Just at that point I thought, well, that's. I'm dead here.

[John Hopkins]

Joe wraps his forearms around the horizontal strut and holds on tight. Intense heat pulsates from below, melting the rubber soles of his flailing trainers. 30 meter walls of flame now encircle the platform. A ring of fire fed by over 50 million cubic meters of gas. By this stage, scores of men have already tragically perished in the blaze or drowned in their bid to escape. And as Joe dangles from the mast, it seems his fate is also sealed. But even in the face of this impossible situation, he refuses to give up. Something keeps him fighting.

[Joe Meenan]

My dad died in 1981 and he actually worked on Piper Alpha as well. I don't know if it was maybe something to do with that that gave me the volt, survived, because that would have just destroyed my mum, you know, it was only my mom and sister left then, you know, so I dare say there must have been a bit of my God's, you know, character in me as well, you know, possibly because he had passed away by that time and he gave me that extra emphasis, inspiration to. To survive.

[John Hopkins]

With gritted teeth, Joe lifts his foot back onto the rung of the radio mast. Greater clarity takes over and he starts to disappear, descend the ladder again.

[Joe Meenan]

It was like somebody flicking a switch, you know, on a light switch on or something and sort of just took over what I was doing. I say, whether it was a walk, survive, or some higher being looking after me. I came down the ladder to the level below the helideck, run along to the access stairs that would take you back up onto the helideck, run over to the north side of the platform, had a look over. That huge explosion had cleared all the thick black smoke away so you could actually see down to the sea.

[John Hopkins]

Joe peers over the edge of the heli deck. It's 175ft to the water below. In his safety training, Joe was warned that jumping into the sea from higher than just 30ft can be fatal. This is almost six times that. Hitting the water from such a height will be like landing on concrete. But what choice does he have? The inferno is building around him, the air scorching his lungs with each breath. It's now or never.

[Joe Meenan]

Took a few steps back and there's this safety net and it goes round the helidecks and they've got Metal supports for the safety net. And I knew I could use that to try propel myself away from the platform. I knew exactly what I was doing, but it was almost like an outer body experience, watching yourself doing what you're doing.

[John Hopkins]

Joe plants his foot on the metal rim of the heli deck. The life jacket he's wearing could break his neck on impact with the water. So he removes it and throws it over the edge. In the next instance, he drives his foot down and and propels himself forward over the rim of the helideck, beyond the safety netting and into the darkness beyond. For a split second, it's as if he's suspended in space. Then gravity takes hold and he drops like a stone.

[Joe Meenan]

And it was only at that point I come back to myself. The first thought came into my head was what leap have I done?

[John Hopkins]

Joe tumbles through the night air, a tiny speck silhouetted against the flames. The wind roars in his ears as the oil slicked water charges up to meet him.

[Joe Meenan]

I didn't really know what was going to happen next. I was just throwing myself in here. I'm black hole, basically.

[John Hopkins]

Joe is almost horizontal as he hits the sea, his left side breaking the surface first. His body plummets down 20ft, disappearing into a cold black abyss. He looks up. Beautiful shapes dance on the surface, flickering lights of pink and orange. He starts kicking and crawling upwards, resisting the urge to breathe in seawater. Seconds later, Joe's head breaks the water line. He gulps down the hot, smoky air and starts looking around for something to hold onto.

[Joe Meenan]

There was a lot of debris. There was a lot of floating objects in the water. There was some bodies in the water also. And I was just very fortunate. I never, never landed or on any parts of debris that was in the water or any parts of the platform that was maybe sticking out on the way down. I don't know. It's quite scary.

[John Hopkins]

From what he can tell, he's relatively unharmed. And in another unbelievable stroke of luck, Joe's life jacket has landed just a few feet away from him. He swims over to it and zips himself into the flotation device.

[Joe Meenan]

All lifeboats were stationed at the north end of the platform and at least one of them would get blown off in that second explosion. And part of the roof of one of them was floating in the water next to me. Managed to grab a hold of that as well and started propelling myself away from the platform.

[John Hopkins]

Pete radiates against the back of his head as he kicks his legs and swims away from the platform. He spots the half destroyed shell of a lifeboat nearby and makes for it. Clambering on board the damaged vessel, Joe stops and steadies himself before staring back at the devastation behind him.

[Joe Meenan]

I look back at the platform as trying to. Trying to just remember what I was witnessing. And one thoughts in my head was if there's anybody left on that platform, they've got no chance. They're gone. So I was sitting there, looked down at my hands and arms because I only had a short sleeve T shirt on and had these huge clusters on my hands and arms and I couldn't figure out how that had happened.

[John Hopkins]

In the chaos, his arms and hands had become badly burned. But given the shock, the pain right now is minimal. The giant blisters on his limbs glow red and Joe takes a few moments to catch his breath until eventually the sound of an approaching motor cuts through the crackle of the flames. He looks over his shoulder. It's a lifeboat.

[Joe Meenan]

He came over, asked me if there was anybody else in the lifeboat. I said no. Got me into the fast rescue craft, lay me along the side. The fast rescue craft. That's kind of when my injury started taking effect on me. So I was in the n consciousness then for the next 40 minutes or so.

[John Hopkins]

For a while, everything is a haze, a collection of random images arriving on board the pharosoft being stretchered through to a hospital area, Medics buzzing around him. And then an hour or so later, there's the roar of helicopter propellers and the smell of diesel as Joe and some of the other survivors are flown back to the mainland. When they finally reach Aberdeen and the helicopter skids on the concrete of the hospital roof, it confirms something that not so long ago seemed impossible. He's going to live.

[Narrator]

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[John Hopkins]

It's the following morning. Joe lies in his hospital bed, his arms and hands swaddled in thick bandages. He's sharing this ward with a dozen or so fellow survivors, some far more severely burned than he is. Earlier, the doctors were able to explain How Joe sustained the blistering on his hands and arms.

[Joe Meenan]

He said, well, we're 100% sure your burns occurred when you jumped off the platform. Just that five or six seconds exposed to the heat. The temperatures were so extreme on the platform. It was just the reason for my burns was heat radiation from the temperatures on the platform. That was the reason for when I sat in a lifeboat and looked down at my hands and arms and I could see these huge blisters on my hands and arms, and I couldn't figure out how that had happened. That was the reason that happened. During the fall.

[John Hopkins]

Aside from the burns and bruises, Joe has avoided any more serious injuries. After a day in the burns unit, he's wheeled into the main ward, where more survivors are sitting up in bed. They greet him with solemn smiles and words of solidarity. For the next few days, the patients help each other process their shared ordeal.

[Joe Meenan]

It's amazing how quickly, you know, the rehabilitation kicks in. And myself and the guy, Roy Carey, who. Roy was very badly burnt on his head and his face and his hands. We got into the main ward where there was some other people, some other survivors from that night, and the camera I did it was quite good.

[John Hopkins]

By now, the Piper Alpha disaster has become international news. One day, the patients in the main ward receive something that lifts their spirits enormously.

[Joe Meenan]

A great uplifting thing for us when we were in the hospital, I found it especially uplifting anyway, was we got these cards and letters and messages from school children from all over the world. England, Wales, Ireland, Australia, Canada, America, New Zealand. I found that really on lifting.

[John Hopkins]

After a couple of weeks, Joe is discharged from hospital. He returns home for further rest and recuperation. And while many of his fellow survivors struggle with PTSD in the months that follow, Joe appears largely unaffected.

[Joe Meenan]

I was absolutely just so happy to be alive. I just couldn't believe what I'd come through. And I was just so happy. And I just thought everything was fine. I thought everything was okay until the Christmas Day of 1988. I'd been out the night before. I'd got up in the morning, I was in my own flat and I just switched on the TV that morning. And then all of a sudden, I was overcome with grand. All I could do was think about that night and all the people, all the families. This was going to be their first Christmas without their loved ones that never survived that night. I was overwhelmed with grief and I just sat there and cried. It seemed like an hour. It could have been half an hour, it could have been 15 minutes. I can't remember. I was overcome and I was howling. We grieved that day. I don't think that was a bad thing either, actually. It was quite a good thing to get it out, you know. But, yeah, it does catch up with everybody at different stages and different times and sometimes when you're least expecting it as well.

[John Hopkins]

Of the 226 people stationed on the Piper Alpha at the time of the fire, only 61 survived. It is the worst offshore disaster in history.

[Joe Meenan]

The 60 or so men that were working that night, 63% of them survived out. The other 160 or so men were off shift that night. There was only 13% of them survived. So if you were outside and you were working and you were maybe down in the lower levels, you had moria a chance to survive. But the people that stayed inside that were all shift, unfortunately didn't give themselves much chance to survive.

[John Hopkins]

An official inquiry is launched into the cause of the initial explosion. It is determined that the first domino to fall was a gas leak in one of the production modules. The escaped fuel was then ignited by an electrostatic spark, the cause of which is still unknown. In the resulting explosion, pieces of flying debris damaged the firewalls separating the production modules, thus allowing the fire to spread and more pipes to overheat, then rupture. It was a catastrophic chain reaction. The cost, 167 lives. The company that operates the platform, Occidental Petroleum, is found liable for damages and ordered to pay compensation to the survivors and to the families of the dead. Ultimately, it becomes evident that safety conditions aboard the platform were indeed lacking. Following the disaster, Joe never goes back to work offshore, but he remains a vocal advocate for offshore worker welfare. In the aftermath of the tragedy, a range of new emergency protocols are introduced to make the work safer. These changes are largely the result of efforts from Joe and other survivors of the Piper Alpha disaster, who spend the years after the accident raising awareness of what happened.

[Joe Meenan]

It's hugely different, the oil industry now, safety wise, mostly in the North Sea. Just that experience of and the feedback I've got, it's really been rewarding. That's the right word. It makes me feel quite proud and it makes me feel as if I maybe doing something for that 167 guys that never made it that night. That gives me a little bit of feeling, making a difference. Oaks right.

[John Hopkins]

Next time on Real Survival Stories, we meet Justine Barwick, a 47 year old care worker from Australia. Justine loves the Queensland coast and takes regular trips there to enjoy long relaxing holidays with her friends. And family. But one day, swimming in waters she's safely explored hundreds of times before, things take a sudden and shocking turn. Out of nowhere, Justine faces a monstrous attack, a fight in the waves and a life threatening injury with major trauma to her main artery. The life is literally draining from her. The countdown has started. That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen to Justine's story right now without waiting a week by subscribing to Noizr plus click the link in the episode Description Today at T Mobile, I'm joined by a special co anchor.

[Joe Meenan]

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[John Hopkins]

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[Joe Meenan]

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[John Hopkins]

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[Joe Meenan]

We up out of here.

[Narrator]

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