When an oil tanker loses power and hurtles towards your cabin in the middle of the North Sea, you might think it’s time to panic. Not if you’re Jez Hunt or Jonathan Spray, highly skilled engineers with more than 50 years of experience between them. The fearless pair have come face to face with cheetahs in South Africa, battled 34ft waves in a storm-ravaged boat, and faced a narrow escape from the middle of the North Sea — all in the name of fixing gas turbines.
Face to face with a cheetah
Another posting to South Africa didn’t exactly go to plan for Jez. When driving through the Kruger National Park with a colleague, their car became trapped in thick bog. It was beginning to get dark and there was no phone signal, so his colleague went to find help. They were fearful that leaving an abandoned vehicle would spread panic if other people arrived, so Jez stayed with the car. “A cheetah walked by not far from me and I knew lions and hippopotamuses were in the park,” he said. “I was only on my own for a couple of hours, but it was a long two hours.” Thankfully the cheetahs strode past without issue and his colleague returned, but he admits “another couple of decisions — if they’d gone differently, it would have been a bad situation.”
A narrow escape
Jez looks back on a “significantly dangerous” situation when working on a stationary platform in the North Sea with 300 others. In the middle of the night, alarms began bellowing and they were informed over a tannoy that an oil tanker had lost all power and was heading towards them at considerable speed. Fearing a collision, helicopters arrived to evacuate workers — but thankfully, the tanker missed the platform by 400 yards. “The atmosphere was jovial to start with, but I have to say it got more and more serious,” he said. “We’re trained to quite an extent on what to do and everybody knows that panic is the last thing you want to do,” said Jez.
A storm-battered ship
Jez was woken one night by a violent storm beating against the boat he was sharing with 100 others. Moored above an oil well in the middle of the North Sea, he was in the top bunk in his cabin when he found himself knocked from his bed. “It’s kind of remarkable to see the sort of thing you normally see in a film, but not under normal circumstances — we never usually see weather like this,” he said. Although Jez wasn’t frightened, he says a few people with less experience on boats were “very, very, very sea sick”.
Why do it?
Jez and Jonathan have found themselves in situations that many of us would only experience from the comfort of a cinema seat. Why do they do it? “I’ve never heard of anyone saying, ‘I’m going to Siberia on holiday’,” said Jonathan. “So, I guess there’s not many people that get to experience that — it’s like another window on the world, seeing how other people live and work.”
For Jez, it’s the thrill of being able to respond quickly to issues across varied projects. “My favorite part is definitely being mobilized at short notice to something,” he said. “It’s rarely life or death, but I get a real sense of satisfaction arriving and leaving pretty soon afterwards with everybody smiling and happy, and it’s all back up and running again.”
And finally, what would Jonathan say to someone considering following a similar route? “Just go for it, 100%.”
At Siemens, Jez Hunt is a Principal Controls Engineer within the Technical Support Department. He’s based in Lincoln in the UK, and has worked at Siemens for 32 years. Jonathan Sprayis a Principal Engineer within the Technical Support Department. He’s also based in Lincoln, and has worked at Siemens for 19 years.
Engineers within the Technical Support Department are sent across the globe to fix gas turbines. They undergo vigorous training to prepare them for their role, including specialist kidnap training. Find out more about working with Siemens.
Illustrations: Tessa Chong
