A Fast Rescue Craft from the Lowland Cavalier rescued several survivors but an explosion killed two of the crew thus blunting their efforts. The firefighting ship Tharos was driven off when the heat began to melt steel on board ship itself! It could only return after two hours of fighting the flames and the Tartans pipeline (feeding the flames) was ruptured. No rescue helicopter could risk landing land due high winds and further gas and pipeline rupture which caused flames of over 100 meters to soar up into the sky.
The leaping survivors made a harsh but wise choice in abandoning the fireproof refuge, for 
about an hour later the entire accommodation module along with other parts of the platform crashed into the sea.
about an hour later the entire accommodation module along with other parts of the platform crashed into the sea.Red Adair
Eventually the legendary oil firefighter Red Adair, fighting gale force winds put the flames out. 167 men were killed and there were only 62 survivors. There had been an earlier oil platform disaster in 1980 when a Norwegian platform collapsed into the sea, but this was a structural issue whereas the Piper Alpha disaster resulted from a safety lapse, no matter how small the root. In the weeks that followed Royal Navy Demolition Divers detonated shaped charges on the subsea jacket of the Piper Alpha, thus allowing the North Sea to claim it.
The Piper Alpha was a tragic loss. However I'm quite sure the two heroic crew who were killed in the rescue (Brian Batchelor and Malcolm Storey) were from the vessel SANDHAVEN under Captain Sean Ennis. ...Respectfully submitted, lest we forget their sacrifice.
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