Wildrake diving accident
Although the bell was eventually recovered by Wildrake, its two occupants, 32-year-old Richard Arthur Walker and 28-year-old Victor Francis "Skip" Guiel Jr., died of hypothermia.
BNOC awarded Infabco a contract for diving services from the drill rig Gulnare alongside the Thistle Alpha platform.
[8] The MS Wildrake was a diving support vessel constructed for and owned by Anders Wilhelmsen AS, a Norwegian shipping company.
[10] In June and early July, with the Wildrake moored near Ulsteinvik, Infabco personnel prepared its diving system for use.
[14][15] The accidental release of drop weights had caused fatal diving bell accidents in the North Sea in 1974 and 1976.
[21] On the night of 7 August 1979, Richard Walker and Victor Guiel, who had been in saturation since 29 July,[22] were lowered to a depth of 485 feet (148 m) in the Wildrake diving bell to work on the reattachment of the SALM to its base.
In response to a faint radio transmission from Walker and Guiel, the Wildrake crew lowered the bell to the seabed at a depth of 522 feet (159 m).
[35] At 06:09, the Stena Welder diving bell entered the water carrying rescue divers Phil Kasey-Smith and Eddy Frank.
[45] With Kasey-Smith and Frank at the point of exhaustion, they were brought to the surface in the Stena Welder bell and relieved by divers Michael Mangan and Tony Slayman.
The official pronouncement of death was made by George Shirrifs, who had arrived aboard the Wildrake with White earlier that day.
[49] Richard Walker's widow and Victor Guiel's family retained US attorney Gerald Sterns, who filed a wrongful death complaint in the United States on 30 July 1980 against ten defendants, including Infabco Diving Services and Møllerodden AS.
[50] On 28 November 1980, Infabco Diving Services Ltd. was indicted on criminal charges in Aberdeen Sheriff Court as the employer of Walker and Guiel.
On 19 December 1980, Sheriff Alastair Stewart ruled that the Crown had failed to prove that Infabco was Walker and Guiel's employer.
[51][52] In May 1981, the United States District Court in Los Angeles awarded compensatory damages of $475,000 to Walker's widow and daughter and $75,000 to Guiel's family.
He found that the removal of the clump weight contributed to the divers' deaths and that the absence of a bell stage indicated "that the diving contractors were more concerned with speed than with safety".
[59] On 17 December 1981, the Thames Television current affairs series TV Eye broadcast The Last Dive, a documentary featuring investigative reporter and former Member of Parliament Bryan Gould, which alleged that an improper relationship existed between Brian Masterson and Joe Singletary, BNOC's Offshore Construction Manager at the time of the accident.
[60] On 23 July 1982, the Edinburgh law firm of Simpson and Marwick filed suit in the United Kingdom against twelve defendants on behalf of the Walker and Guiel families.
