To channel offshore oil and gas operations , the construction and alimony of equipment at uttermost depths is required , often beyond 50 meters towards the seafloor . For underwater diver that accomplish this far into the mirky blue , they must descend and ascend passing carefully , learn time to depressurise at each small increment to void horribledecompression sickness .
Decompression unwellness , also recognise as the bends , is one of the great challenge of diving . As a underwater diver descends through the depths , the imperativeness around them increase , owe to the weight of the ocean pressing onto their bodies . Gases such as nitrogen are breathed in until the underwater diver ’s tissues are saturate , mean these gases are dissolved within the tissue to the point that they are at the same engrossment as the external respiration salmagundi . This changes due to pressure , so the plunger must adjust as they move up or down .
flush it to do so correctly , and the consequences are horrible . decompressing sickness happens when a change of imperativeness come about too fast , resulting in break up N forming bubble in their tissue and rip . A potentially lifespan - threatening stipulation , it can cause agonising pain , confusion , palsy , and even death . Once diagnose , decompressing sickness can ask long stints in a recompression bedchamber to readjust , based on severeness .
So , for large oil - minelaying rigs that require almost constant work on equipment on the seafloor , how can companies avoid the tenacious periods of waitress as frogman aline to new pressures ? The US Navy come up a radical solution in 1957 – simply keep the frogman under utmost pressure , 24/7 .
Saturation Diving
This idea , scream theGenesis project , mark the beginning of saturation diving , one of the most serious and well - pay jobs that exist today .
Saturation diving event is a diving technique that postulate stick around under pressure sensation for so long that all your corporal tissue become in equilibrium with the neutral gases in the breathing mixture ( either helium or nitrogen ) , and then staying under that pressure sensation for tenacious periods of meter . These divers leave the guard of dry nation and move into pressurized living quarter , after which they are transfer down to an underwater habitat via a diving ship’s bell . Once they are saturated , they will remain under intense insistence and breathe a mixture of oxygen and helium for weeks , until their tour of responsibility is over and they can be unwind .
biography is exhausting , claustrophobic , and vivid for these plunger . Breathing the specialized assortment causeschillsthroughout their physical structure due to the helium , and there is an array of medical knottiness that can rise from long - condition exposure to rough depth , alongside an almost constant risk of decease . A phone number of rigid regulations are implement to minimize the peril of these issues , from mandatory diving event metre to push time - off . Grouped together , these risk of exposure result in intensity diving becoming one of the most specialised jobs in the Earth , with just336people employedin this role in 2015 in the US .
However , whilst saturation diving event is safer than it has ever been , one improper move and the implication are deadly . The most infamous example of this is theByford Dolphin stroke .
The Byford Dolphin Explosive Decompression Accident
It was a routine process on the Byford Dolphin oil equipage on Saturday , November 5 , 1983 , in which four divers were returning from a nosedive and exiting the diving bell into their compressed survive Sir William Chambers . The chamber consisted of chamber 1 , in which Edwin Coward and Roy Lucas were resting , and chamber 2 , where Bjørn Bergersen and Truls Hellevik were enter after their work . Chamber 2 was connected to the diving buzzer by a trunk , which the bell would impound to and be secured by a clamp operate by two diving tenders , William Crammond and Martin Saunders .
In these position , the pressure must be cautiously balanced to assure the diving bell can be disconnected from the chamber system . The tenders were in armorial bearing of the procedure , which should go as follows :
1 . The diving bell door is closed .
2 . Pressure is increased in the diving Alexander Bell to seal the door close .
3 . Chamber 1 is closed off from the trunk .
4 . The trunk is depressurize to a received 1 atmosphere .
5 . The clinch is relinquish , freeing the diving bell .
Despite being experience in this procedure , Crammond supposedly made a black error . Between footprint 2 and 3 , whilst the chamber door was being close , Crammond out of the blue released the diving bell clamp . The trunk was now open to the surroundings and the chamber , which had a huge pressure difference – and the consequence was an explosive decompression . All four divers were bring out to a insistency slope far too extreme for the human body to withstand , resulting in their immediate and trigger-happy death . The line rushing out of the automobile trunk forced the diving doorbell from its position , striking the tenders , kill one and seriously injuring the other .
The Death of the divers are look at one of themost gruesome deathsin history . Due to the speed of the incident , it is expected that all the divers passed at once and painlessly – but the scene left behind was horrific .
The pressure differential gear caused three of the divers ’ blood to flash boil , almost in a flash kill them . The fourth had it even worse – the rushing aviation forced his eubstance through a disruption just 60 centimetre ( 24 inches ) long , launching vital electric organ and trunk parts up to 10 meters ( 30 foot ) away . The aesculapian tester described some of the organs to be so inviolate , it was " as if dissected out of the trunk . "
serve as a crude reminder of the dangers of saturation diving , the Byford Dolphin accident resulted in the formation of the North Sea Divers Alliance , make from the relative of the victims . The following report see the drive of death to be human error , but the Alliance filed a lawsuit lay claim there was deficient safety equipment onboard . After26 years of fighting , a report receive the chambers contained faulty equipment that led to the accident , suggesting Crammond was absolved of responsibility . The congenator finallyreceived compensationfor the personnel casualty of their loved ones .
