Ocean Ranger

THE OCEAN RANGER, an oil-drilling sea rig, was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan and first operated in the Bering Sea off Alaska in 1976. From there it move to New Jersey, then Ireland, and in November 1980 arrived on the Grand Banks off eastern Canada. On the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, the rig was operated by ODECO Drilling of Canada, under contract to Mobil Oil of Canada. ODECO was to manage the operation of the rig and crew, whereas Mobil was responsible for the drilling program.

The Ocean Ranger was a massive oil rig touted as unsinkable and able to drill in areas too dangerous for other rigs. It was the pride of the offshore oil industry, the biggest rig of its day, more than 300 feet high and as long as two football fields. On February 15, 1982, the semi-submersible drilling rig capsized and sank in the Grand Banks, 170 miles east of St. John's. Poor training, inadequate safety equipment, design flaws, and 120-mile-an-hour winds sealed the fate of the 84 crew members. All of them died.

A Royal Commission was founded to determine the cause of the tragedy. The findings revealed a history of negligence regarding safety. ODECO failed to provide qualified marine personnel, had not replaced the lifeboats, and did not have a valid Certificate of Inspection at the time of the sinking. ODECO also neglected to provide any sort of survival suits for the crew. Mobil failed to ensure the crew had been through proper training as well as to instruct the captain of his duties.

The commission found neglect in safety, hiring, training of the crew and management, engineering design, and overall construction of the rig caused the Ocean Ranger to plunge to its destruction. A more strict inspection and regulation of the vessel should have been undertaken by the United States and Canadian governments in order to prevent the disaster. There should have been training provided on a regular basis for the operation of the rig, and evacuation in case of emergency. Many of the workers did not know the safety rules and escape procedure. Evacuations drills should have been mandatory. Families of the lost crewmembers sued the companies that owned and operated the Ocean Ranger. The companies were forced to pay out millions of dollars in lawsuits.

The oil company was held liable because its workers weren't trained for emergency procedures and didn't do any emergency drills. Experts found the Ocean Ranger could have survived the storm flooding if those in charge had understood how the ballast system worked. The two men working in the ballast room had never been tested for their competency. The senior operator had only reached the halfway point in his training but was promoted to the senior operator. The Ocean Ranger did not have enough safety equipment on board for the number of workers, just one example among other forms of gross negligence.

Although there were civil liabilities, no criminal charges were brought; this is often the case when death and injury is a product of violence from an employer's negligence, rather than that of a single individual outside the workplace.

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