Saturday, July 06, 2013

25 years ago...

...press night at The Shetland Times, where I was news editor. Busy. An oil supply boat had rammed the Ord of Bressay, the skipper drunk and the editor and I had just returned from a trip out there by inflatable boat to take pictures. One last call to the coastguard to check on what was happening with the wreck.

What I remember is the voice at the other end of the line saying "wait a minute..." And then. "We're getting reports of a fire..."

And that was the first inkling that anything was happening at a platform called Piper Alpha.

I remember trying to get through to national newsdesks, and how bored and uninterested they were at that time of night.

But not for long.

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