Alexander Kielland was a Norwegian oil platform in the Ekofisk oil field. The platform, located approximately 320 km east from Dundee, Scotland, was owned by the Stavanger Drilling Company of Norway and was being hired by the U.S. company Phillips Petroleum at the time of the disaster. The platform was named after the Norwegian writer. The Hibernia platform is the worlds largest oil platform. ... Ekofisk is an oil field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. ... “km” redirects here. ... For other uses, see Dundee (disambiguation). ... This article is about the country. ... For other uses of terms redirecting here, see US (disambiguation), USA (disambiguation), and United States (disambiguation) Motto In God We Trust(since 1956) (From Many, One; Latin, traditional) Anthem The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City National language English (de facto)1 Demonym American... ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) was founded by the merger of the Conoco Inc. ... Different meaning: Alexander Kielland (platform). ...

After 40 months of service, the floating drill platform was no longer used for drilling purposes but served as a living quarters for the nearby Edda platform.

In driving rain and mist, early in the evening of 27th March 1980 more than 200 men were off duty in the accommodation on the Alexander Kielland. The wind was gusting to 40 knots with waves up to 12m high. The platform had just been winched away from the Edda production platform. Minutes before 18.30 those on board felt a 'sharp crack' followed by 'some kind of trembling'. Suddenly the rig heeled over 30° and then stabilised. Five of the six anchor cables had broken, the one remaining cable was preventing the rig from capsizing. The list continued to increase and at 18.53 the remaining anchor cable snapped and the rig turned upside down. 130 men were in the mess hall and the cinema. The rig had seven 50-man lifeboats and twenty 20-man rafts. Four lifeboats were launched, only one managed to release from the lowering cables. ( A safety device did not allow release until the strain was removed from the cables.) A fifth lifeboat came adrift and surfaced upside down, its occupants righted it and gathered 19 men from the water. Two of Kiellands rafts were detached, 3 men were rescued from them. Two 12-man rafts were thrown from Edda and rescued 13 survivors. 7 men were taken from the sea by supply boats and 7 swam to Edda.

No-one was rescued by the standby vessel which took an hour to reach the scene.

Of the 212 people aboard 123 were killed, making it as of 2007 the worst disaster in Norwegian offshore history. Most of the workers were from Rogaland. 2007 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Rogaland is a county in Norway, bordering Hordaland, Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder. ...

Investigation

One year later in March 1981, the investigative report concluded that the platform collapsed owing to a fatigue crack in one of its six bracings (bracing D-6), which connected the collapsed D-leg to the rest of the platform. The platform was recovered in 1983 on the third attempt since the disaster. It was scuttled later that year after a search for missing bodies was completed, as well as several tests to determine the cause of the disaster. The fatigue crack had grown over time from a hydrophone port in the bracing tube. Judging by paint on part of the fractured surface the crack was probably due to improper labor at the plant in Dunkerque, France where the rig was built in 1976. Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar). ... In materials science, fatigue is the progressive, localised, and permanent structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic or fluctuating strains at nominal stresses that have maximum values less than (often much less than) the static yield strength of the material. ... Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ... A hydrophone is a sound-to-electricity transducer for use in water or other liquids, analogous to a microphone for air. ... Location within France Dunkirk ( French: Dunkerque; Dutch: Duinkerke) is a harbour city and a commune in the northernmost part of France, in the département of Nord, 10 km from the Belgian border. ...

Other major structural elements then failed in sequence, destabilising the entire structure. The design of the rig was flawed owing to the absence of structural redundancy. In engineering, the duplication of critical components of a system with the intention of increasing reliability of the system, usually in the case of a backup or fail-safe, is called redundancy. ...

Consequences

A consequence of the Alexander Kielland disaster was the tightening of command organization on offshore installations in the North Sea so there was a clear source of authority for ordering abandonment in crises. The 14 minutes between initial failure of the leg and the rig's eventual capsize left a window in which most of the personnel on board could have escaped, given a more effective command structure. But it would seem that no one took charge on the night. These revised command structures (more akin to conventional shipping command structures) are now frequently put into use when vessels lose anchorage in storm conditions, or when fixed installations are threatened by out-of-control vessels. jejejej whatever-..

Similar Incidents

Not long after the Alexander Kielland platform capsized its sister platform Henrik Ibsen tilted over, but was straightened up again.

Approximately 18 months later the Ocean Ranger rig "turned turtle" in similar weather conditions off the Newfoundland coast. A subsequent investigation into the causes of the Ocean Ranger disaster by the US Coastguard established that structural failure was not a factor. Ocean Ranger platform The Ocean Ranger was an offshore exploration oil drilling platform that sank in Canadian waters 315 kilometres (175 nautical miles) southeast from St. ... Newfoundland —   IPA: [nuw fÉ™n lænd] (French: , Irish: ) is a large island off the east coast of North America, and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. ... Structural failure refers to loss of the load-carrying capacity of a component or member within a structure or of the structure itself. ...

Bibliography

• Bignell, V & Fortune, J (1984) Understanding Systems Failures Ch. 5 ISBN 0-7190-0973-1
• The Alexander L. Kielland accident, report of a Norwegian public commission appointed by royal decree of March 28, 1980, presented to the Ministry of Justice and Police March, 1981 ISBN B0000ED27N

External links

• An animation by Failure Analysis Associates (now Exponent)
• Website alleging the accident was an act of sabotage
• Petroleum Museum, Norway
• Oil rig disasters listing and descriptions
• Welding Institute work on disaster