This Pipe Killed 123 Men 

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I missed this by ONE day! My bunk at the main Ekofisk complex was needed, so I was transferred to the Keiland for a night to catch the early chopper to the beach and my flight back to the states. My GF picked me up and brought me home. She woke me up in the afternoon and told me to turn on the news. The network was carrying the story as Breaking News. I would later find I had lost several good friends in the incident. Requiscat In Pace, guys. You are sadly missed.

It's crazy how little redundancy was built into that rig. If one weld failure was enough to take down the whole thing, it really seems like it was inevitable. It's kind of odd too because it's not like it's an aerospace application where they are desperately pinching weight. It seems like they could afford to add a couple more braces to up the factor of safety on a rig that is going to spend its life getting battered by the sea.

The biggest lesson that we can all take from this is if you're in a sensitive area (A tall building, a boat, a nightclub) and something unusual starts to happen, *REACT* Don't wait for emergency services to tell you what to do. Investigate for yourself and start taking proactive steps to mitigate disaster.

We studied this in materials science when we were learning about fatigue, and one detail that often gets overlooked is that the weld wasn't even structural, which is why it got ignored. It was only to connect a hydrophone - just an underwater microphone - to one of the braces. It could've been connected in a bunch of ways, but the fact they chose a weld is how the failure occurred. The problem has a number of elements. To start with, these rigs are engineered quite close to the limits of their strength, because they need to be light enough to be buoyant. That means the structural members are all hollow. That's fine if nothing goes wrong, but in engineering, especially when lives are at stake, assuming nothing will go wrong is a big no-no. You want redundancy. Adding more material and more volume would be more expensive, but it would add redundancy. The next problem is that shapes, particularly internal bends, in structural members can cause stress concentrations. This is part of why you make fillet shapes, including fillet welds. This is to smooth out the corners, to spread out the stress lines and prevent them from bunching up too much as they go around the corner. You can't get rid of this problem entirely however. The last problem is with how fatigue cracks develop. There is an ultimate strength above which a material will fail immediately. Lower there is also a fatigue strength, below which the material can survive an infinite number of repeated loadings without any problems. Above the fatigue strength the number of loadings the material can survive goes down exponentially. Close to the fatigue strength the material might withstand over 10,000 repetitions, but as you get closer to the ultimate strength that number drops to thousands, then hundreds, then tens, then just one. The material slowly, imperceptibly deforms and becomes more brittle as microscopic imperfections work their way to the surface. Once it's too hard and brittle, a crack develops, which is the worst case feature for stress concentration. This will typically push the material well past its ultimate strength the next time it is loaded, and the crack will propagate extremely quickly, possibly failing the entire member in one go. The scary part here is that you really can't know if a fatigue crack is developing without analysing the member in microscopic detail. Once you can see the crack, the member is likely beyond saving. Now the problem as I understood it was not primarily one of workmanship but design and oversight. The weld had some defects, but it shouldn't have been there in the first place. They designed brace D-6 to be strong enough on its own, even with the repeated loadings of strong winds and high seas. They then added the welds in the middle of it that didn't remove any material so they assumed it would be fine, but didn't carry out a fatigue analysis on that weld. If they had, they might've noticed that one single 6mm fillet weld compromised the entire structure. They also didn't inspect the welds properly and didn't design a rig with enough redundancy to withstand this sort of failure. If they had, maybe it would've stayed upright long enough for an evacuation. At the bottom of the wikipedia entry there's a link to a report by officer of the watch, a maritime safety organisation, that outlines this and other failures in the process. Ultimately disasters like this don't happen because of one mistake, they happen because many mistakes stack up one on another.

Thanks for posting this. Astonishing how just one failure point can lead to so much grief.

What a nightmare. Props to the men who work on these tombs

I can't believe this channel doesn't have more views, amazing quality content 👍

As a student welder I will tell you that it is very easy for weld defects to be missed, a welder might cover a slag pocket or use just slightly wrong amperage, usually for high stress applications you stack multiple welds together to make a big one, apparently here it wasn't enough.

I remember my grandmother took me out to look at the wreck of the rig, which was upside down with the pontoons sticking up just above the surface after it was towed close to shore. Didn't get the full grasp of it as a 7 year old however the sight of the rig stuck with me.

I just found this channel and the videos are well made! No loud background music, clear descriptions for audio only, thanks

Let me say, as an experienced oilrig and construction worker in the North Sea for several years there's a lot not explained here or just plain left out. To cover everything, including the decisions made beforehand due to a lack of understanding of real conditions in the North Sea, would take hours to adequately explain. There are a lot of people in multiple countries who still hang their heads in shame, muttering "If only we'd only known then what we know know now." Hindsight is 20/20. Experience is a marvelous teacher. It's easier to recognize a mistake the second time you make it. 😢

Love your videos mate. Happy Father's day to all the dads out there

I really appreciate all the pictures you add to your narration. It really helps me get a good understanding of all the things I'm unfamiliar with

Thank you for sharing their story.

The North Sea carries a very bad reputation. I worked on fishing trawlers in that sea for many years and the storms that could appear without warning were surreal. We could be trawling on what was a perfect sea in perfect weather. Almost in an instant, the sea water around would go from a blue colour to a green colour - it was a bad omen to see it because you knew then that a storm was coming in fast despite no bad weather being visible. I've seen things go from calm to hell on Earth in just ten minutes, I've seen the trawler held heavy with a net while waves grow so big they wrap around and over the boat because the boat couldn't rise with those waves. We had times when the coastguard became aware of our being on the sea and talking to us as we tried to make way to sheltered waters. The rig workers in The North Sea were well trained and well equipped with safety. Unfortunately, some things beyond their control would see good people perish.

I want to retract my request on Great lakes freighters and ask for more of the stories about these oil rigs. There is so much fracture in the early designs and the tragedies are unknown for many people I think.

I worked offshore in the 80s, i heard that one of the legs was used to put heavy equipment that is used in different times in the drilling operation and this contributed to the weld failure, RIP to all the lost souls.

Expertly narrated and presented. ❤🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿👍

You make fantastic videos. Only problem is that it's difficult to understand the footage you're using. Could you add some text for the viewers to understand if the footage if from the actual incident or something else?

That has to be one, if not the most scariest things to experience besides war. Truly sad and devastating to the family’s, friends, and coworkers. May they rest in peace🙏🏼

I guess there is nothing else to do than to wait for the Titan submarine episode.

This is so informative!!! Fantastic reporting; I love this kind of content!🌻🌼🐝

I feel like the answer when the sh!t hits the fan at sea is never “stay in your cabin”

Love your channel and story telling. You deserve more subscribers!

the videos of those massive oil platforms being tossed around by gigantic waves is the stuff of nightmares. i can’t imagine having to jump into raging 50 foot waves, knowing you have no other option but to jump.

Should I stay or should I go? A terrible dilemma, I suppose in the absence of any definitive instructions, the instinct in that situation is to stay in your cabin. The ones who went for the lifeboats made the right call, but the majority weren’t so lucky. Most large scale disasters are like that, a few people making the right decision at the right time. RiP, lads.

Great clear & ez-2-understand narration of horrible Incident. A+ presentation! Your video & pictures show chronology of events without going too deep into complex details of extreme North Sea weather, layers of engineering, welding, metal fatigue testing & ultimate certification. Much enjoyed your other video on Deepwater Horizon in Gulf of Mexico. That was not a weather related incident but more management short-circuit on several layers causing catastrophe. Keep making these clear & easily understandable videos. Great job!👍👏✅️

Another amazing video! Some of that footage is incredible. Your work is top notch sir. Salute! 🌹⚓

I remember this event. At the time an engineer colleague told me the crack started after a 1" hole was drilled in the leg to mount a transducer.

I actually like the two separate platforms one for living quarters the other for work, that way if something happens on the working platform people have a better chance to live

I'm finding this video extremely frustrating due to its copious use of stock footage, some of which has nothing to do with the platform. Why do this?

Top notch video as always, my submechanophobia was hating all the visuals in this but in an good way lmao

Even during the summer you don't want to be swimming in the north Sea it's freezing never mind waves and wind.must of been absolutely terrifying. Respect and thoughts to those who died on that day 🙁.

Would love to see your take on the Ocean Ranger Disaster

Good Morning, again another fascinating, exciting story about jobs men do that I have never heard of. I see alot of rust on some of these rigs, are they ever cleaned, fixed and repainted??? Please keep these cool stories coming, looking forward to the next one. 👍👍👍👍😉😉

Just listening and imagining what it mustve been like is absolutely terrifying

The Aleksander Kielland platform was nicknamed "Bangladesh" by those who worked there, because the rig was worn out and in bad conditions . Many talked about sabotage and insurance fraud, Norwegian authorities' handling of the accident, did not improve matters. The rig was towed upside down in to land. The authorities wanted to sink the rig in deep water without turning it over, but after much back and forth it was turned over a few years later, examined and sunk in deep water in a fjord. 123 perished and not all were found.

U already know there was a FINANCIALLY more EXPENSIVE option that would have prevented all this 20 years prior. There always is. But cheaper is always better cuz "we r already behind schedule we need to be DRILLING!!"

The 5 legged design is cursed I t would seem. This isnt the only catastrophe involving a 5 leg

The Spanish guitar music gives a kind of uplifting, Mediterranean vibe for the gale force death floater.

7:26 On holding your breath (not spontaneously inhaling) after jumping into freezing water… this is so so difficult to do. you can literally inhale nothing but ocean/water and drown instantly. It's even hard to do in very cold water, well above freezing.

I love your videos so much, but I still can't get used to the abrupt endings, they always gives me a split-second feeling that my internet connection has dropped out.

No way, I hear several loud bangs in the middle of a storm I’m already strapping on my headlamp and finding the closest lifejacket cabinet. As soon as we start listing to one side without rebounding, I’m gonna grab anyone I hold dear and get them ready for a swim. The problem with human activated alarms is the operator being in fear of being ridiculed for creating a false panic, so there is in most cases a few minute delay while they debate on whether they should trip the alarm. Every ship I’ve been on I make mental notes of where fire equipment is, lifejackets and lifeboats.

The background music is a bit loud and distracting but good video

123 men: nothing, pipe: im going to kill you

massive failure in the companies' duty of care One weld failure should not sink this platform, idealy there should be multiple redundancies like an aeroplane ideally there should be a structure that can float and hold the men built into the design, forget about shitty life rafts, explosive charge releases it, food and water for 2 days, heli deck on top, can survive a roll-over, sealed doors like a submarine For a multi billion operation, this design wouldn't be too bad to incorporate

"Any idea how much Magnaflux magnetic powder is used each year inspecting for cracks on one of these oil rigs?" Is the first question I would ask my interviewer before stepping on one of these rigs...

As a welder, i can't imagine what it would feel like, knowing my work killed so many people.

That didn't sound scary, MUCH. Frightening for survivors, terrifying for the victim's. So So scary!!! great video

Hey WS, you have a VERY GOOD story developing right now - PLEASE wait until all the info comes out and do AN EPIC long form 1 hr video on the OceanGate sub disaster. You'll corner the market and the video might make your channel go viral. GOOD LUCK.

You keep showing images of freefall lifeboats, however, the Kielland to my knowledge did not have freefall lifeboats.

My wife's uncle, George Collins lost his life in this tragedy. 😢

Awesome video, it just seems that it cut off right when.

Excellent video!

Thanks for a great video. Just out of curiosity when you say men do you mean people in general or that there were no females at all involved in this?

What a horrific nightmare.

There were many lessons learned from the loss of the Kielland, and I guess in a sense it was good it was not a production platform and there was a very limited environmental impact.

It’s so surreal seeing an oil rig move around a stationary platform in sped up footage lol. It’s like a nature documentary.

Good docu. Loose the annoying flamenco music. It distracts.

So it looks like to me that the flange failed not the welds. The pipes welded at angles held? Or atleast that bottom right diagram looks like? Or is the weld failed that then sheared the plate 🤔

Does this need to be asked? Are the life saving vessels now distributed and stored on some or all sides of rigs nowadays?

Worked on the rigs as a scaffolder/rigger for 15yrs, and have seen cracks in weld's, small ones were ignored and put on the monitor list, I tried to keep off those rigs when I had the option 🧐🥺🥺😡

20 years in the Navy glad I never had that happen 😮

Would be cool if the video description was a description of the video instead of an ad

How terrible rip to those lost

This is why x ray welds is a absolute must

I read it as "this pope" and now my disappointment is immeasurable.

I could never be a seaman. Every time something starts to tilt, I am running to the top ready to jump. I would always question the safety procedures over and over again and look at the rust and decay over and over again to see if there is some change. I am paranoid. Just recently my foundation cracked. The drought made the house move because the ground became so dry it shrank and moved away from the house. WHY WON'T IT RAIN!!

Was is leased? If so, which company?

Sorry but your lifeboat section is completely incorrect not free fall the development of onload release mechanism please check

May they rest in peace.

Possible to cover the USS John McCain' shipping collision?

15m. 50ft. Why 15 : M , 50 : FT ? Just seems excessive and unnecessary.

This ended so abruptly I thought my video was buffering or something

Just so heartbreaking.. such a huge loss of life...😢😢😢 Why on earth weren't all the men trained before any storm came? Putting on life jackets for starters.. I worked in a care home years ago- every 12 weeks we had fire drill, i wonder WHY these poor souls never had any 'just in case' drills?? 💔

id say those welds are a little more then a fillet weld. most anything offshore is full penetration. sorry if i spelled anything wrong im a welder.

The sea knows not a soul

why they don't fill the braces with nitrogen and monitor the pressure?

It is unbelievable that one weld can be responsible for the disintegration of an entire platform Perhaps the platform itself is designed with maximum savings in mind, so one such bad point can trigger a whole chain of other mistakes that were overlooked due to cost cutting.

Find it hard to believe that a brace would just be a fillet weld. Surley would have been full pen, stick root and flux core fill and cap with a ut test and mag crack test minimum

Thats insane

The weather didn't seem super harsh from what the beginning of the video said but it's still not good.

Terrible tragedy... You cannot blame the crack as the only reason for capsize... !!; Its criminal how Philips reacted... God bless the lost souls.. !!!! ❤😢😢😢😢😢😢

Strange that such an expensive and important equipment wasn't being checked for fatigue cracks periodically...

Why show photos not connected to subject??????????????????????

Platform was like watch this! And did the splits

This is exactly why women live longer.... So sad so many men were lost, how one can recover from such an event. Hopefully this never happens again, life is nojoke.....

One of my uncle's best friends died on this

The last two videos don’t go into the aftermath as they used to. Are you just trying to keep them shorter?

If that piece of pipe was the point of fracture?it looks like a parent metal fatique failure as it looks a distance from the welded joint and having welded many of these saddle type prep joints i know they are all Pull penetration welded joints not fillets,but maybe the did that back in the day?i am 61 and never seen it on any structure i have worked on in the oil game.

the life boat launch would be scary AF😂

Can't wait to see titan submersible video?

Well, so workers died. The CEO, board of directors, and stock holders got bonus.

I know of a pipe that has killed millions…

would love to know if this would have happened if the platform were riveted instead of welded.

yes another one i know iv not been commenting recently but im still lurking lol and love the channel

I seem to recall it also being something to do with a modification to one of the braces that weakened it.

Should of been a full pen weld, but can see it been a fillet weld full stop

This is exactly why the cronstruction workers of this type of structures are expected to be payed a much higher rate then regular construction workers, this is not that type of job one can just handle ower to the nearest shopworkers contractor or someone who used to worked on the hamburgerbar before he gor a 6 moth license. I hawe worked many years with steel construction, but not even i feel ready to take on this type of critical structures yet, if so it would take me at least a full year of full time, everyday practice before i would even think about it, that usual "we don't hawe time for this! or fair enough" mentality is simply out of option for this type of work even if it would probably hold up just fine for a few years before things start to happen as here. This is the danger of trying to find the chepest contractor but not letting it pray on safety if something in the chian went wrong, in this case i guess they forgot to do a X ray and inspect for owerheting the material, all welding seams which are concidered to be critical need to be borth occulary inspected by an experienced person AND X ray photo of the internal structure of the seam. Even if the welders are experienced there are still factors that may affect the long therm outcome of the seam ower time which can not be seen just by the naked eye.