46 year ago……

When it went down Terry a lot of people I knew were working on another Pentagone platform (P84 if I remember correctly) which was working for Total in the North Sea. Almost immediately afterwards the rumours about fatigue cracking on one of the legs started so the guys were all really anxious and some refused to go back on after their break.

The other link is we were living in Bergen when the AK was recovered and towed inshore near Bergen for later scuttling. I recall that we were advised not to eat reker (shrimps) for a long while afterwards as they may have been feeding on corpses on the AK.

What a dreadful disaster.
 
If memory serves me well Tony, the eventual cause of failure was a poor standard fillet weld. When I delivered NC unit on weld inspection, I used the Alexander Kielland tragedy as a good example for the need for QAQC procedures. Poor quality fillet weld was missed during inspection of x-rays of the bombed area. Time and North sea storms did the rest.

I totally understand the no "reker" consumption. I had a similar policy of never go hunter gatherer near sewage outfalls while diving!!
 
Jeez, that was a hard watch Terry. It brought back so many memories. I was part of the team that handled our Norwegian activities out of Aberdeen late 70’s early 80’s and as we were a partner in Ekofisk we had a pretty heavy involvement with Phillips, I even visited the field on several occasions. In 1982 I was transferred to Bergen to help set up our new exploration office over there as part of our (successful) campaign to get awarded operatorship of acreage in the Norwegian sector. I was there from 82 to 87 when all this regulatory activity was taking place. Even met with some of the NPD guys in that video.
Even saw a brief glimpse of P84 in the video which was the drilling platform we were using at the time.
Thanks for posting.
 
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