The public inquiry into the Piper Alpha disaster

This paper reviews the causes and results of the Piper Alpha platform disaster and makes recommendations to prevent the reoccurrence of such an event. The author headed the public inquiry into this disaster. As a result he recommends that the safety regulations with regard to offshore operations be completely rewritten to allow for more site-specific and flexible application of safety system designs. Although the paper makes some other specific recommendations on safety systems, the secondary thrust of the paper is on developing more workable evacuation, escape, and rescue plans.