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In 1978, there was a huge political pressure to build the Statpipe pipeline for transporting oil and gas from the Norwegian continental shelf ashore to Norway. Not only national interests were involved, but also international, as the supply of Norwegian gas could hamper the Soviet Union's attempt at making Europe dependent on Russian gas.
The pipeline had to cross the Norwegian trench, and the laying of the pipeline depended on the ability to repair it in case it broke at depth. A demonstration project was launched, where Taylor Diving & Salvage was going to perform a simulated repair of a pipeline fragment at 320m depth in a Norwegian fjord. From a workman's safety point of view the project was a shamble, rather typical for offshore operations in the 60s and 70s. David Hoover lost his life at 320m, probably due to a gas cut and the divers not carrying bailout. His partner, John Kohl, was blamed for his death, while the gross safety breaches from the diving company - sanctioned by the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority - were swept under the carpet.
A new TV documentary, aired today on Norwegian television, tells this story.
Google translated synopsis
Streaming of the documentary (comments are in Norwegian, but many of the interviews are with the American divers involved and the family of David Hoover. Those are of course in English.)
A little bit of trivia: The operations the American divers were trying to do, are uncannily similar to the underwater operations in the 2013 thriller Pioneer, which apparently is planned to be remade by Smokehouse Pictures, run by George Clooney and Grant Heslov
The pipeline had to cross the Norwegian trench, and the laying of the pipeline depended on the ability to repair it in case it broke at depth. A demonstration project was launched, where Taylor Diving & Salvage was going to perform a simulated repair of a pipeline fragment at 320m depth in a Norwegian fjord. From a workman's safety point of view the project was a shamble, rather typical for offshore operations in the 60s and 70s. David Hoover lost his life at 320m, probably due to a gas cut and the divers not carrying bailout. His partner, John Kohl, was blamed for his death, while the gross safety breaches from the diving company - sanctioned by the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority - were swept under the carpet.
A new TV documentary, aired today on Norwegian television, tells this story.
Google translated synopsis
Streaming of the documentary (comments are in Norwegian, but many of the interviews are with the American divers involved and the family of David Hoover. Those are of course in English.)
A little bit of trivia: The operations the American divers were trying to do, are uncannily similar to the underwater operations in the 2013 thriller Pioneer, which apparently is planned to be remade by Smokehouse Pictures, run by George Clooney and Grant Heslov
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