An oil services firm has been fined £500,000 following the capsize of a supply vessel off Shetland which claimed the lives of the captain, his teenage son and six other men.
The Bourbon Dolphin turned turtle when an operation to shift the anchor of a drilling rig went wrong on April 12, 2007.
Captain Oddne Arve Remoy, 44, and his son, David, 14, were among the eight people who lost their lives when the vessel capsized in the Atlantic.
In Norway yesterday, public prosecutor Bjoern Soknes fined Bourbon Offshore because the company failed to give the ship's new captain, Mr Remoy, enough time to learn about the vessel, her crew and the complex operation. He had only 90 minutes to take over.
The company can appeal yesterday's order but declined to comment on the ruling last night.
The commission set up to investigate the tragedy reported its findings in Norway last March, saying it was not possible to show that an individual technical or human error was to blame.
Instead, it identified safety failings which contributed to the vessel’s loss, including her stability, the inexperience of the crew and the planning of the operation.
The commission raised concerns about weaknesses in the design of the vessel but also said the boat was not suitable for the job she was doing.
Failures in the handling of safety systems by the firm (Bourbon Offshore), by the operator (Chevron) and on the rig (the Transocean Rather) were major contributory factors to the accident. The ship was on contract to the oil firm Chevron and was one of several vessels carrying out anchor handling to move the Transocean Rather drilling rig in the Rosebank oil field.
The operation was planned and overseen by maritime consultancy firm Trident. The commission regards its report as “sufficient basis” for authorities and private parties to consider errors and negligence to decide whether it should trigger legal action.
The Health and Safety Executive is considering whether there were any breaches of UK legislation. It is still investigating the incident and will be submitting its own report to the procurator fiscal in Aberdeen in due course.
Last night Jake Molloy, regional organiser for the offshore energy branch of the RMT union, called for penalties to be leveled at corporate board members – rather than companies – when loss of life is involved.
“No fine will ever replace a human life, because you just can’t put a price on that,” he said.
“In the bigger picture, Bourbon are a relatively small firm and this fine will hurt them. However, what we need is innovative penalties which will sharpen the corporate mind more than fines which do nothing.
“In other countries, board members have been stripped of pensions and bonuses and even jailed to try and encourage corporate responsibility – this is the type of thing which could quite easily be applied in the UK.”