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Crew tell of terror on oil rig
15/08/2005 23:13 - (SA)
Carin Smith, Die Burger
Cape Town - "It was pitch dark, the sea was rough and we were terrified," said a worker from the oil rig, Pride South Seas, describing Sunday night's evacuation of about 80 crew.
The man, who asked to remain anonymous, said they noticed and felt "something was wrong" about 14:00 on Sunday because the rig had tilted.
About 16:00, the alarm went off and the crew was told to prepare for evacuation.
"We had to leave everything behind, because our lives were more important than our luggage," said the worker.
He said they endured several fearful hours waiting in an icy wind of 32 knots for a helicopter to pick them up.
Three tugs were on standby in case of an emergency before the helicopter could reach them.
The crew, who were evacuated during the first couple of flights, were dropped at nearby rigs to enable the helicopter to return to the troubled rig to evacuate the rest.
The trip to shore took about 45 minutes each time and, after 22:00, everybody had been evacuated, except 10 essential crew. Die Burger's source praised the rig management's "decision to evacuate the workers even though the rig had been stabilised by then".
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