At 21.58 hours on 6 July 1988 the first in a series of explosions rocks Piper Alpha. Some 230 men are believed to be on board. The oil industry’s worst disaster claims the lives of 167 men; only the very lucky – among them Ed Punchard – will survive.
His story brings alive the terrible events of that tragic night: his amazing escape from the inferno; the inadequacies of the rescue facilities; the post-traumatic stress disorders experienced by survivors and bereaved. Trained as a deep sea diver, Ed Punchard became an inspection controller – the job be did on the ill-fated Piper Alpha. He shows how years of neglect and financial cutbacks in the oil industry and unnecessary deaths.
PIPER ALPHA a survivor’s story is the moving account of how one man lived through the world’s worst ever offshore tragedy and coped with its painful aftermath.
ANZEC Member Punchard
In 1988, Ed Punchard survived the world's worst offshore oi rig disaster on board the Piper Alpha in the Noth Sea, when it exploded with the loss of 167 lives. That incident ended his eight-year career offshore and began his role as a documentary film-maker. He has advised in the making of programmes for World in Action ITV, First Tuesday ITV, Yorkshire Television and BBC Panorama.
In 1991, Mr Punchard established Prospero Productions in Fremantle, Western Australia. Producer credits include Paying for the Piper (San Francisco Golden Spire Award for Best Television in Current Events), Hutan - Wildlife of the Malaysian Rainforest (Silver Medal - New York Festivals), Diving School (Western Australia Screen Awards, Outstanding Achievement), Selling Australia (2001 Chicago International Television Competition, Certificate of Merit), SAS - The Search for Warriors, (AACTA Award for Best Documentary Series), and recent series including Life on the Edge, Wild Survivor and Outback Truckers.
