Search for capsized ship survivors called off
Updated on 13 April 2007
A teenage boy on work experience - and his father are among the eight people feared dead after coastguards called off their search for survivors from a Norwegian oil rig support ship which capsized in the North Sea.
They say their work is now a salvage operation.
The alarm was raised at 5.20pm yesterday afternoon - 75 miles off the coast of the Shetland Islands.
While working on the Transocean Rather drilling rig - the Bourbon Dolphin suddenly flipped over. Exactly why is still unknown.
Just visible, bobbing about in the ocean - the upturned hull of the Bourbon dolphin is the only sign of this 250ft ship. it was carrying 15 Norwegian crew - now three are dead, five are missing. Rescuers say its extremely unlikely anyone else will be found alive.
Royal navy divers went down into the vessel but discovered no survivors - and the grim news is that two of those feared dead are a father and his 15-year-old son on work experience.
Tonight the search and rescue operation has been called off.
Last night seven of the crew were airlifted to hospital after being plucked form the ocean. They were the lucky ones - thrown into the water with lifejackets, some managing to get onto a life raft which had opened automatically.
The Bourbon Dolphin was only a year old and on a routine job yesterday at the Transocean oil rig. So routine that one crew member felt comfortable taking his teenage son with him as part of the boys work experience.
So how did the boat capsize as it was carrying out a normal anchor handling operation at the oil rig. The Transocean Rather rig is attached to the ocean floor by eight anchors - two at each corner.
The Bourbon Dolphin's job is to pick up and manoeuvre those anchors.
Yesterday, the tug had pulled the anchor cables nearly a mile from the rig and was ready to drop them.
Reports suggest the ship then made a sudden sharp turn.
The anchor cables came loose from blocks at the stern, holding them in place, pulling the vessel from the side and tipping it over.
Oil industry vessels will search the scene until dark - but tonight the coastguard could no longer offer the families of the missing men any hope only its sympathies.
The rescue attempt
- The incident occurred at the Transocean Rather drilling rig
- :5.20pm Tug overturned
- :2 rescue helicopters and a Nimrod aircraft were deployed
- Three ships and Subsea Viking diving vessel are at the scene
