At 4 a.m. on November 5, 1983, two divers, Bjørn Bergersen and Truls Hellevik (D3 and D4 on the above diagram) reentered the diving bell after being in the sea for 2.5 hours. Decompression takes a while, so two other divers, Edwin Coward and Roy Lucas, who had been in the water previously, were resting in another section (D1 and D2). Outside of the decompression chamber, on the oil rig itself, were the two dive tenders, William Crammond and Martin Saunders (T1 and T2).
In an instant, four of the men were dead. Somehow, the clamp separating the decompression chamber from the regular atmosphere came undone, either by being moved too early by one of the dive tenders or by mechanical failure. The sudden and extreme change in pressure immediately killed the four men inside. Of the two men outside, Saunders was injured, and for a time, Crammond could not be found. It turned out that the explosive pressure shot him away from the chamber, and he was discovered suffering from fatal injuries after others on the rig went searching for him. Sadly, Crammond would die before reaching a hospital.
Two and a half decades later, Clare Lucas, the daughter of diver Roy Lucas, told Yorkshire Live, “Talking to people who saw it is virtually impossible because they have been so traumatized by it and can’t speak about it.”
