saturation divers are professionals deep-sea

divers who dive down to depths up to 500 feet (152 meters) or more in order to repair equipment used on offshore oil rigs as well as undersea pipelines. However, unlike commercial divers who perform only a few hours at depth before returning on the shore, divers who are saturated be able to spend as long as 27 days at a time on a single project in a cramped, high-pressure room in which they eat and sleep during shifts. Pay is great for saturation diversaround $30,000 to $45,000 per month but it’s hard work in a secluded and unnatural atmosphere. It can also be hazardous.

In 1983 four saturation divers as well as one of the crew members were killed in a horrific accident on a Norwegian-owned oil rig known as Byford Dolphin. Byford Dolphin. The Byford Dolphin incident was a wake-up call to divers in the industry of commercial dive who responded by implementing more stringent safety procedures so that other divers was to suffer the same fate. Before we go into the details of what happened in detail, let us provide some basic information on decompression sickness , or “the bends.”

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Why ‘The Bends’ Are Bad News

Divers first discovered diving in the 1940s. Since then, divers have learned a lot how to swim safely to deep depths, often by doing it the hard method. When a diver sinks into the water surrounding them exerts pressure to each cell of their body. The pressure also compresses the molecules of gaseous

nitrogen

Intakes by the lungs inhalation, which causes nitrogen gas to dissolve in through the bloodstream.The ingestion of nitrogen isn’t the problem. The problem arises when the diver attempts to climb to the surface at a too rapid rate. Think of it as shaking a bottle of 2 liters of soda before opening the cap. The gases that were held under pressure immediately create bubbles. That’s the way it works in the body of divers when they experience decompression sickness , or “

The bends

.” When they move too fast from the pressure that is high in deep water to the lower pressure on the surface, nitrogen molecules that dissolved under pressure rapidly expand, and then become gaseous again. “Nitrogen bubbles can develop in bloodstreams and can block the blood flow and blood vessels, which includes your heart.” states Phillip Newsum an experienced commercial diver, and the director-executive of the

Association of Diving Contractors International

. “That’s when you are at chance of developing decompression

How Saturation Divers Stay Under for So Long

You dive for, and the more you remain submerged and the longer you stay underwater, the more nitrogen is dispersed within your bloodstream. The body of a diver eventually gets “saturated” with dissolved nitrogen and that’s how saturation divers got their name. Saturation divers work at depths

as high as 1,000 feet

(304 meters). If they employed the same method used by divers who are recreational to safely decompress by slowly ascending, with long pauses it could take days for them to get to the surface. Saturation divers instead are transported to the surface by dive bells that are pressurized, and later transferred to specially designed chambers to decompress. For each 100ft (30 metres) that divers who are in saturation descend the need to spend around a full entire day inside the decompression chamber in which they can relax on cots, relax, watch films and eat food via slot machines that are pressurized. It’s not financially feasible for oil companies to pay for saturation divers only a couple of hours of work and a few days of relaxation. In addition, once you’ve reached the saturation point your body won’t be able to absorb more nitrogen, regardless of how long remain submerged. Instead of decompressing after every dive, divers who are saturated simply remain in pressure. Up to 28 daysthe maximum allowed by industry standards -saturation divers are able to travel to the depths of the bells of diving that are pressurized. However, instead of getting into a decompression room on the top, they sleep in hyperbaric chambers that keep your body at the exact level of pressure that the deep water does”

A Routine Procedure Gone Horribly Wrong

to create a saturation diving operation. Life support technicians make sure that the air mix inside the hyperbaric chamber corresponds to the air that divers breathe under water. Dive control is responsible for managing the

Bells that dive

that lifts and lowers cranes, and monitoring divers while they perform their work. They also have cooks who cook and serve meals to men locked inside the living chambers.Workers known as “tenders” have a very crucial support role.

They assist in removing and reversing the “umbilical,” the thick line of tubes for air supply and communication wires that connect divers with the sea surface. There was a time when tenders held additional responsibilities, including docking the bell for diving to the living chambers that are pressurized. “The saturation divers are completely at the mercy of the tender and of their supervisors on the dive control team,” Newsum says. Newsum.

On Nov. 5, 1983

A seasoned tender identified as William Crammond was in the performing a routine task on board the Byford Dolphin semi-submersible oil-rig which was in operation within the North Sea. The rig was outfitted with two living chambers that were pressurized which could hold two divers. Crammond has just connected his diving bell with the live rooms and was able to safely place a pair of divers into chamber one.

The two other divers were already in chamber two. That’s the moment that everything were horribly off. In normal conditions the bell for diving wouldn’t be removed from the living rooms until the doors to the chamber were closed. But, the bell was removed before the doors to the chamber were shut, causing what’s known as “explosive decompressio “It’s the death penalty,” says Newsum. “You won’t survive.” The pressure of air inside Byford Dolphin’s Byford Dolphin living chambers instantly increased to

9 atmospheres

— the pressure that is felt at a distance of thousands of feet under water — as high as 1 atmosphere.

Hard Lessons Learned and Delayed Justice for the Families

In the 1960s, after oil began to be discovered near on the shores of Norway There was a boom in oil production within the North Sea. Safety wasn’t always the first priority. According to one estimate there were at the very least the death of 58 divers within the North Sea from the 1960s to the early 2000s “The Byford Dolphin was one of the worst oil field disasters in history,” Newsum says. Newsum, “and it led to major shifts within both the North Sea and in commercial diving safety worldwide.Today, Newsum says, every dive operation has to carry out a thorough risk assessment and risk analysis.

There are redundant procedures included in every procedure to avoid human error and faulty equipment. Certain oil rigs are equipped with specially designed hyperbaric lifeboats which can take saturated divers out of a fire or hurricane without the need to return them to normal pressure before. It took a long time before the Norwegian government that was running by the name of Byford Dolphin at the time of its death in 1983 take responsibility for the tragedy and to pay compensation to families of the five victims. It was not till the year 2009 when the Norwegian government made a secret payment that were paid to relatives of the 6 victims from the accident of 1983.

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