The 1983 Byford Dolphin Disaster: Divers “Boiled Alive,” Organs Expelled Through Bisected Body
Explosive combustion forced one of the men through a 23-inch hole, slicing open his body and expelling his organs.
4 min readNov 27, 2023
Explosive combustion forced one of the men through a 23-inch hole, slicing open his body and expelling his organs.
On November 5, 1983, four saturation divers- Roy Lucas, Edwin Coward, Truls Hellevik, and Bjorn Bergersen returned from a mission near the Byford Dolphin oil rig.
The divers had conducted construction work at depths of up to 1,000 feet below the surface for about 28 days. The hazardous conditions included breathing in pressurized air that dissolved into nitrogen gasses inside their body organs and bloodstream.
Nitrogen gasses need time to evaporate from the body before divers can return to the surface. Resurfacing too quickly can cause bubbles to form in the blood and tissue…
