Exploding Under Pressure

Truls Hellevik, a Norwegian diver working aboard the oilrig ‘Byford Dolphin’ had just returned from a dive with three other divers. They were all in a decompression chamber system attached by a short passage, called a ‘trunk’, to a diving bell on the rig. Suddenly, the chamber explosively decompressed from nine atmospheres to one in a split second. All the divers were killed, as was one of the tenders helping them. A second tender was seriously injured. Hellevik, however, had been exposed to the highest-pressure gradient and the internal gasses in his body expanded massively and rapidly. His body literally exploded from the inside out. His body parts rained down about the rig. One part was even found lying on the rig's derrick, 10 meters (30 ft) directly above the chambers. What a way to go.