PIPER ALPHA

was, of course, exceptionally damaged by events. Homes across the north of England too felt losses of fathers, sons, brothers and friends.

The safety record of the North Sea was quickly pulled into focus by the press. Experts speculated over the cause of the disaster and details of a previous explosion on Piper Alpha some four years earlier started to emerge.

Dignitaries filed into the stunned city to offer their condolences. Among them was Dr Armand Hammer, chairman of Occidental Thirty years ago today, the world’s worst offshore oil and gas rig disaster occurred in the waters of the North Sea. A total of 167 men died as a result of the horrific series of explosions which ripped apart Piper Alpha, and while 61 men survived, their lives were changed forever. Today we look back at the events of that night and the subsequent inquiries – examining how it has affected the lives of the families of those who died and the survivors, and how it has changed the North Sea oil and gas industry. oil company, who faced the press outside ARI to defend his company’s safety practices.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher also visited casualties in several wards and pledged £1m to the disaster relief fund on the day that a full public inquiry into the tragedy was announced. Diana Princess of Wales was pictured at the bedside of survivor Michael Bradley during a tour of the hospital with Prince Charles.

Two weeks after the tragedy, The Scotsman, on 21 July 1988, covered a remembrance service at St Nicholas Kirk in Aberdeen. Around 2,000 people gathered inside with around the same number again lining the surrounding streets. Photos of the city’s people captured both the numb and the raw.

The newspaper said: “In the city you could almost touch the sadness, grief and pain. Yesterday was a day when the price of North Sea Oil was advertised all too clearly on the faces of the families left behind.”

Aberdeen, meanwhile,