How To Squeeze A Human Being Through A Five Inch Hole

The Byford Dolphin Incident has gone down in history as one of the most horrific workplace accidents of all time. So, this might get a bit gory. In 1983, a team of saturation divers off the coast of Finland experienced an explosive decompression event that ended the lives of five people, one of whom in the most destructive way imaginable. So today we’re talking about saturation diving, what makes it so dangerous, and what went wrong on that fateful day.

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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - The Byford Dolphin
1:38 - Saturation Divers
3:33 - Tangent Cam
6:08 - The Incident
10:02 - The Fourth Diver
12:36 - The Aftermath
15:15 - A Safer North Sea
19:20 - Sponsor - Ground News

[joegetto]

The saying goes “every regulation is written in blood”.

[hexlart]

In the immortal words of xkcd: They stopped being biology and became physics.

[blaster-zyxx]

As gruesome as this is. I would rather die instantly and not even be aware, than die a slow, painful, degenerating death.

[stevencooper]

I worked for a company that changed from 8 hour shifts to 12 hour shifts; accidents and injuries skyrocketd and their insurance got canceled. Most manufacturers view people as "easily replaced".

[klbriceno]

I remember watching a special about this years ago. The conclusion was that the pressure ripped the diver out so fast, that any signal from his body like pressure or pain wouldn't have had enough time to register in his brain. He would have had no idea what happened, and definitely felt no pain. I truly cannot wrap my head around that kind of speed and that kind of pressure.

[paulas]

I’m so tired of hearing about accidents caused by a gadget that wasn’t installed because of “Grandfathering in”. It’s bullshit! Safety regulations should apply to every project, vessel, piece of machinery, etc. Not just new projects, machines, etc.

[alger]

Blame overworked, exhausted employees for a horrific incident that could have been avoided by the company installing a simple and cheap safety measure. But the owners and stockholders need another couple of dollars. Yup. That tracks.

[renchesandsords]

excuse me, you're dealing with a 9atm pressure vessel for humans, and you chose NOT to install a thing that prevents it from accidentally decompressing due to human error. Something like this should pretty much ALWAYS fail SAFE in the event of human error and prob at least single point failure

[syriuszb]

If it takes only one mistake of a person, especially if that person is expected to be at least sometimes tired or work in unfavourable environment, the system is fully at fault.

[adamsfusion]

Remember: an employee can never be at fault for a corporate disaster. No matter what, it will always be the corporation's fault since they control every process from work to safety.

[regallag]

I've worked 14+ hour shifts on dry land and it took a toll on my health. I can't imagine doing it under multiple atmospheres worth of water.

[rogerscurlock]

From everything I've read. All 4 divers in Trinidad survived being sucked into the pipeline with survivable injuries. I think one guy had a broken leg. The biggest problem was being trapped in an air bubble with no air tanks. One man miraculously made it out of the pipe. He was then immediately informed that it had been deemed too dangerous to attempt to rescue the remaining men. He tried to re-enter the pipe to rescue his co-workers but was restrained.
Basically, it was something that should've been a cautionary tale in which everyone survived. Then the company turned it into a tragedy that was 3 men slowly suffocating in a dark oil pipeline while waiting for help that was never coming.
Edit: this incident wasn't saturation diving. They were just normal technical divers.

[GojiMet]

Me: Ah, so this is where that dolphin and a scientist researcher lady got a little frisky
Joe: A man was horrificly squeezed through the doorway and turned into human bacon, and there was a cover-up

[lorimartabin]

"Delta P grabs you suddenly, and it doesn't let you go until the pressure is equalized. When it's got ya, it's gotcha."

[JerryRigEverything]

Dude. I'm eating lunch right now. Wtf

[God_Yeeter]

the morbid curiosity i had to click this video is probably why i've seen too much

[kristianfagerstrom]

First: I'll never understand cave diving either, second: How is it not criminal negligence to refrain from installing a lock that protects your workers from instant death?

[JoyTheLazyCatLady]

Why do people blame a person's family for what they believe someone did or didn't do? His wife was innocent of this. She was nowhere near it. She suffered a loss, as well. People need to be less hateful and more empathetic to others. I know it's never going to happen but hope is still free.

[thebookofsand]

"imagine you're a deep sea welder!"

[partlycloudy]

Ill describe the images from the autopsy report for anyone that is curious but doesn't want to see:

The main image is of diver 4's remains: one leg, severed and fractured in many places; the remains of a pelvis (more mush than bone); thoracic cavity, organs missing; spinal column, more closely resembles a drumstick; both shoulders, destroyed; both arms, fractured and destroyed in many places; one hand, disjointed and broken; and a mass of flesh where the skull should be.

There are photos of the other 3 divers, naked and intact. The photos are black wnd white, so its a bit hard to tell whats going on. One has a particularly grizzly expression.

The soft tissues of diver 4's face somehow survived, however they were detached from his skull. It is recognizable as a face, with the mouth, nose, one eye, and eyebrow preserved. I think this is the worst image.

An open eyeball, with a bursa under the cornea.
A thoracic cavity thats hard to determine much of what is going on.
A spinal column, isolated from anything else.
The external view of the ribcage of diver one
Pleural bursas,
A stomach,
Cardiac chamber with free fat deposits.
Microscopy of the liver, bones, cerebral vessels.
And lastly, gas bubbles visible in cerebral vessels.

Also, the autopsy report is an interesting read if you are medically inclined. If you are desensitized to gore and brutal body horror, the report is worth a read. There are colorized images on google of diver 4's remains, which is kinda brutal. Regardless, the speed with which their blood and organs boiled and the speed with which diver 4 was fragmented likely means they felt nothing.

Also, the report states that the fat deposits are likely due to the boiling blood crashing lipids out of solution, which is awful.