If you want to learn a bit more about deep diving and some of the incredible dangers involved, check out this video I made a little while back about a prominent cave diving accident: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/obecndN-2N-nkYU.html

I spent 20 years as a commercial dive tender and hyperbaric chamber operator. This event is taught to every dive tender that has ever been trained since 1984.

After watching your videos over the months I've come to the conclusion that as long as I don't leave my house and don't buy an ape I should be fine.

"Coward" is such an unfortunate name for someone so brave as an saturstion diver. RIP these poor men.

The detail that has always stuck with me: part of Hellevik's SPINE was found on a ledge 50 feet away and 30 feet above the dive deck. That's how violent the explosive decompression was. The sole solace in this is that none of the divers felt a thing, this all happened in milliseconds. Physics is unforgiving.

The fact that it took 26 years for them to get a pay out is fucking ludicrous

It's ridiculous that potential hazards were identified, regulations changed to prevent it from happening, and then exemptions were given to the very places it was designed for! It's disgraceful that it took so long for the families to receive compensation. The only 'bright' side is that the deaths were quick, they likely didn't have time to realise what was happening.

My dad was an army diver in the 60s and 70s. He was an underwater mine sweeper. The stories he told, of accidents and people panicking during training.. Honestly, he gave me a fear of diving. He did not inspire me to follow in his footsteps.

The details of this incident will always creep me tf out with how fast the incident happened.

The only comfort anyone can take from such a horrific and shocking incident is that their deaths were instantaneous. Such a dreadful way to go, and so traumatic for the crew and those people charged with the grim task of retrieving their remains and cleaning up the disturbingly gory scene. The poor survivor though.

Nothing like 10-15 minutes of disaster retelling to help me fall asleep

Thank you for NOT including any pictures of the poor diver who was forced through the open door. There are images out there but they are extremely graphic and gruesome. This incident revealed a strong need for a better system of handling diving bells like this. It’s absolutely ridiculous that it took over two DECADES for the families to be compensated by the government for such negligence.

Fascinating Horror's concise and informative style of explaining these tragedies lends itself well to being shown in the workplace for safety lessons. It should be.

Thank you for giving so much detail. Before this I'd only heard versions that eliminated the extremely limited communication between the divers and the tenders made even worse by terrible weather and cacophonic noise. Those versions with such limited information left the impression that the tenders were reckless fools. Now I know they were very tired men doing a hard and hazardous job with insufficient communication and safetly equipment and under extreme environmental conditions. You do a great service to all the victims of this horrific accident, the tenders included.

It took 26 YEARS for the families to get a settlement?!! Ridiculous!!!!

That incident really gives me a hibby-jibby as they died from decompression and one forcibly sucked out after the Diving Bell blasted off.

It's always surreal to really think about how tiny mistakes can have such instantaneously catastrophic consequences. When you do a job, you are constantly aware of the simple things that are huge mistakes in context, but you never really think about how little and easy those the actual action of those mistakes are.

Thanks FH for tactfully and respectfully describing the physical devastation of those men. The reality was far more extreme and gruesome than you let on! Awful story but it taught some important lessons!

This is by far the best explanation I have ever heard of this incident. I've researched this before, but I don't feel like any other source has adequately explained nitrogen saturation or decompression sickness and you explained the results of explosive decompression so much better than I've ever heard before, and I've had to learn this for work. Excellent video!

One of those avoidable disasters where best things you can say about it, outside of the sole survivor, is that everyone at least died instantly and that it's an excellent bad example.

One of those classic cases which just make you wince.

The moment when Hellevik's body was ejected reminded me of a story of the most shocking event my dad seen in his 4 yrs of USAF service as an equipment mechanic (layman's terms, he fixed the machinery that helped fix the jets), There was this one crewmember who was high almost every day for work. The Chief mechanic (Superior officer) was about to get him dishonorably discharged for his drug use, well this stoner got too close to an intake vent of a jet.. and what was left of him was a long red streak down the tarmac and runway. This is why you keep a safe distance from active plane turbines kids.

Saturation diving seems like a pure nightmare fuel occupation. Not only this incident, but the story of Chris Lemons who got caught up in the North Sea and also Kazuta Harada who was saturation diving in Japan when he got attacked and eaten by a massive Great White Shark. Absolutely terrifying.

Thank you, FH, for always giving thorough rationale for correct procedure so we can understand what went wrong.

Pressure is a scary thing. You're better off in a decompressing spacecraft than a decompressing diving chamber. If a steamship has a steam leak the way to find it is by waving a broom handle around until it gets sliced off, by all accounts as effortlessly as a lightsaber through butter. These are the sort of workplace safety videos we need.

This is by far the best description I've seen of this accident. Most pay short shrift to the technical details and focus instead on the shockingly gruesome nature of Hellevik's injuries.

I’ve never looked favorably upon the use of robots to replace people in the workplace. In this instance, however, I see the wisdom of doing so. This was a terribly tragic accident.

Something that often gets left out is the fact that both the divers and tenders were at the tail end of a VERY long shift - they were fatigued and all wanted to get the process of transfer over with quickly. Add the noise, no good indicator system and no failsafe, this kind of tragedy was inevitable. The force of 9 atmospheres spontaneously decompressing is comparable to a shot from a 19th century artillery cannon. The diving bell didn't just fall away - it became a giant cannonball, and the tender that removed the clamp was right in the path of it. The three things they needed and completely lacked were interlocking failsafes, indicators, and checklists. They didn't even have a decent checklist to run through, and as the aviation industry can tell you, checklists are vital to operate complex equipment whose controls must be used in sequence. Even a checklist that told them to double-check the status of the inner hatch before unclamping might have prevented the accident. It never was the tender's fault, though he got most of the blame. The ultimate blame lay with the Dolphin company, for operating a rig out of code with no safety failsafes and pushing their diving crews for illegally long shifts. The divers, at least, passed away instantaneously, though the details of what happened to Hellevik are best left to the imagination. If you want a deeper look (no pun intended) into the world of saturation diving and its dangers, the excellent documentary "Last Breath" goes heavily into it, including a situation nearly as perilous as this one.

I'd forgotten the name of the company. When I heard the words "diving bell," I started thinking, "oh, no... oh, no..." What a scary profession. Even on land, sitting in the pressurized chamber, hoping nothing goes wrong with the mechanisms keeping it pressurized, because you might die painfully.

Does not matter how many times you hear this story, it's still one of the most gruesome accidents ever and it never gets less impressive to hear the details and dangerous of sudden decompression. At least the guys were gone fast and instantly without suffering.

Ive heard this story told a hundred times. It never stops being terrifying.

Yayy another video! You and John (Plainly Difficult) are amongst my favourite KZfaqrs

What an absolutely horrifying story. You had a lot of science to explain in this video, and you wove it in to the human story masterfully. Your selection of graphics and your editing are equally good. I don't know a better storyteller on YT. Thanks for your outstanding work.

Thank you in your telling of this historic accident. Unfortunately, we learn more from our accidents than we do from our successes.

Thanks for reminding me never to go diving i prefer to be on land than underwater if something potentially goes wrong at least i would have a better chance to escape from whatever predicament i may find myself in

I love the respectful, unsensationalized way you present these stories. Tragic as they may be, I find it fascinating to examine precisely what happened in these situations, what the outcomes and lessons learned were, and appreciate the concise, factual analysis your documentaries provide without the use of unnecessary shock value or graphic imagery. Excellent work as always, FH.

This is my favorite channel for this type of content. Many try to mimic your storytelling style, but none can match it.

This is THE case to hear for anyone even beginning to think 🤔 “Hey, maybe all that decompression stuff is a bit unnecessary “ 🤦‍♂️

26 years?!?!? That’s longer than most prison sentences.

You should make a video on the Alexander Kielland oil rig disaster! Truly a fascinating horror story which had major implications for the then-future of oil drilling in the North Sea. The accident is fairly well documented on Wikipedia, and the accident report was released to the public.

there are actual gruesome photos of Hellevik's body from the investigators as in his body is shredded to pieces like he went through a kitchen blender, dear god.

The design of the pressurized habit and diving bell were obviously inadequate for the transfer task. That system shouldn't have been allowed in 1983. That it took 26 years to resolve the lawsuit is also ridiculous, families that depended on the income were probably severely affected.

Years ago I ran across some of the pathology photographs from the incident. It was more horrific than most people can comprehend. Closer to being squirted through an opening like a tube of toothpaste that was run over by a truck. The only mercy was that it was over so quickly for them.

To be perfectly honest, I think using robots in general to do dangerous work that humans normally do can save many lives across all industries that have dangerous work environments.

Delta P is utterly horrifying... literally the only blessing is at least it was quick.

Thanks for this detailed and informative documentary about Byford Dolphin Accident. I've heard this workplace accident before but I didn't exactly understand how it happened.

This is one that has always freaked me out as far as just what and how it happened, and just how fast it happened as well. It infuriates me about how the rig owners got an exemption, though I am glad post accident the exemptions were very swiftly rescinded however

Been religiously watching your content every Tuesday morning for over a year now, and it is one of the highlights of my week

Even though the death toll here was much lower than in your other documentaries, this one feels especially grim for some reason.

After multiple channels gleefully covering the Paria tragedy, it's nice to know I can learn about things here without worrying about gruesome "last moments" footage or pictures.

Holy! I think I remember recommending this story to a community post you made years ago! This is such a terrifying and tragic accident. Puts the recent Titan submersible implosion into perspective. Byford Dolphin was a difference of 9 atmospheres, the titan submersible was a difference somewhere in the 350 - 400 atmospheres range!

There was a Mythbusters episode that demonstrated what can happen with such a change in pressure ... disturbing!

Tuesday mornings never disappoint

Your narration is so good!

Diving truly is scary

The pictures of the hyperbaric chambers have my claustrophobia going crazy...

i've gotta say THANK YOU for not including the autopsy image of the diver that was dismembered. someone sent a video about this same story in a server i was in, and that video contained images that left me in complete shock for at least a few days, with zero prior warning to them being shown. just seeing this particular accident show up on your channel gave me a chill down my spine, i was really worried about that particular image. that aside, it's definitely not a story to be ignored. if any good's to come from these horrible deaths, information needs to be out there.

I remember reading about this but since I'm not familiar with the diving profession the details went right over my head. Your dialogue and visuals made it much clearer. Now I get it. A split second. That's all it took. I'm surprised even one person survived! I'm glad he did. Poor guy, the survivor's guilt must've been strong. Your viewership has always remained super strong! All due to your fantastic way of delivering content. I've subscribed to your channel for years (8?) and love it as much now as I did then. Shout out to you for being so popular, having a steady stream of subscribers, and being consistent in your greatness!🏆🏅 Take care of yourself!🙂

Man.......I gotta say, the things I learn from this channel about the dangerous stuff people do for a living and then of course the horrible consequences of a simple mistake or lapse of judgement just one time and how unforgiving it can be. RIP to those who passed from this accident. It is nice to see that improvements and other forms of technologies are providing a safer work environment......I'm pretty sure you couldn't pay me enough to do this kind of work.........matter of fact, I know you couldn't pay me enough to do this.......brave souls!

The details of this case are so gruesome… you are aptly named, Fascinating Horror. ❤️

even with all the other stories you've covered this one is still the most disturbing imo. I first learned about it when I was a kid and whenever I think about it I get a shiver up my spine. what an awful way to die.

Yes, I am one of those people who had to find the photos. Astonishing, unbelievable, perturbing... don't begin to describe this nightmare event. I hope these men's brains truly had no time to register anything. Thanks, FH.

I first learned about this accident when I was in the navy, it was used as a warning for differential pressure, also known as Delta-p. This describes the phenomenon when water or air rushes through a narrow gap in order to equalise, because of the pressure is greater on one side versus the other, there's a well known video online of a crab, being sucked down fissure in a pipeline at 1828 metres (6,000 feet), it's a scary reminder of the danger of Delta-p. What happened on the Byford Dolphin was very much a freak accident, I cannot imagine how ghastly it must have been seeing human remains strewn all over the rig, never underestimate the danger of Delta-p.

Delta P is an existential horror

Me: oh neat a story about a dolphin Also me: oh no it's a human and he's inside out

I heard about this event and have been trying to avoid seeing videos about it. It was such a horrific event. At least I knew you would cover more respectfully than must channels that have covered it.

I've heard this explained so many times, but your explanation was the best by far!

My boyfriend works at a place that has a boat that had to get a special exemption to being found sea-worthy as it flips if more than one wave hits it. He luckily isn't assigned to that boat anymore (thank god!), and it hasn't gone out in a long time because things keep breaking on it (I suspect the employees are just constantly either claiming stuff is broken or actually breaking stuff to keep it in harbour because their employer has refused to retire the boat) but I always worry someday I'll hear it flipped. When it does, I'm sure you'll cover that they got an exemption to being sea-worthy...as a boat. Sometimes I wonder if anyone at the Byford Dolphin or any of these other places also knew someday there'd be an incident.

This has freaked me out for decades and I have have tried to "unsee" it since the first time I learned about it. Every time I manage to forget, something somewhere mentions it. It's like losing The Game.

I absolutely love waking up to see a notification that there's a new video from: "Fascinating Horror"!!💜

There are three things in this world I never want to see - the full Station Nightclub fire video, the Tom Pryce F1 crash video, and the images of the aftermath of this. I've watched more than a few videos about this on KZfaq over the years and it's still the most horrific accident I've ever come across.

I work in a hospital with a hyperbaric chamber, and we treat divers with the bends fairly regularly. It's a fascinating bit of kit (came from the old Royal Navy hospital at Haslar when it closed) and is used for all sorts of other things as well. But having been involved with the treatment of afflicted divers it's something i never want to have to go through myself.

Your telling of events was extremely respectful of those involved. Some people covering this are quick to blame the crew for making “obvious” mistakes without thinking about how they’d react at the end of 12 hour shifts.

Bless our men that do these insane jobs❤. They deserve $1k a day for this. I couldn't do this. RIP to these poor guys. How horrible to die this way😢 You are definitely one of the best disaster documentary channels. Thank you.

you know you're a little bit messed up when you go "oh heck yeah Byford Dolphin!"

i liked this before i started watching and thought "wow, 123 likes isn't much, what's going on?" then saw that the video came out 10 minutes ago :o

Been waiting for you to do this one forever. Great video.

Great episode! RiP the divers and the tender. All underwater stories affect me more than other incidents... absolutely terrifying. Hoping to see a "The Abyss" April's fools episode next year!

I’ve seen pictures of the aftermath of the accident, you don’t even get that instinctual queasy feeling when looking at graphic pictures because the bodies have been so mangled they don’t even register as human :( at least it was so quick most of them couldn’t have even realized what was happening before they were gone….

Thank you for not including the image of the aftermath, even blurred. I stumbled across it once on the interwebs and that shit haunts me to this day.

I recommend looking into the Alexander Kielland rig disaster too.

I hit like before the video even started 😅

Thank you for your hard work on your videos , i learn so much watching them .

I find your videos to be very interesting and informative and you go the extra mile, visiting the locations, museums and animating the story. Wow so much work, but honestly it’s worth it as it’s fascinating. I knew nothing of the history of the things you cover now im subscribed to several channels covering similar stories but honestly yours are the best by far.

I was wondering when you'd cover this. Of all industrial accidents, this one horrifies me the most.

watched and read a good handful of pieces covering this incident, still absolutely love the organization and concise explanations and visuals you put together for these things. love to see it, in that peculiar way one learns from things that go wrong. thank you so much.

Sweet you made a video on my suggestion! 🤘

FIrst time hearing about saturation diving. Dangerous work, indeed! thank you for the content.

I enjoy your stories. Love From India.

Thank you for cleaning up what happened and putting it in a way gently enough for me to listen.😢

I've seen photos of Hellevik's body. What was left is so unrecognisable as a human being (bar for a hand with a watch on it) you're not grossed out.

You always had quality content. Plus, it's understandable and very well presented. Thank you.

I felt an immense sense of dread as soon as I heard the words “diving bell.” Such a horrific way to go.

Good morning everyone 😊

As always thank you so much for such a wonderful video with so much detail and respect for those who it occurred to!

This is the best video I've seen so far covering this incident. The illustrations really put it into perspective.

Thank you for not going into gory details. I’ve seen this story covered by other people who go in detail about the gore and will even show gory pictures. Which some people are into that but it’s nice having someone who covers tragedies without the gore

Somehow, of all the disasters i've seen in this channel's videos, this is the one that creeped me out the most. Thinking about blood boiling or getting extruded by many atmospheres of pressure from one instant to another is just a horrid mental image.

The first semi-submersible oil rig that I’d been on (UK 2008-ish).

I'm a dive master 8 I have 40 years diving experience. Im an instructor at Kilamans Diving & Ocean Activity School in San Diego California.