Crewman comfortable after North Sea fall

THREE crewmen from an oil standby vessel working in the North Sea were airlifted to Lerwick on Tuesday morning after falling into the water from a fast rescue craft, despite conditions being flat calm.

The trio were working on board the large platform supply vessel Enea at the Tern field, 100 miles north east of Shetland. One of them was initially said to be in a serious condition.

The men were recovered by their fellow crewmen, but doctors advised they be flown to Lerwick to be checked up by medical staff at Gilbert Bain Hospital.

The Tern platform crew contacted Shetland coastguard who launched the Sumburgh-based rescue helicopter, which flew to the field and winched the men aboard, arriving back at Lerwick about 11.15am.

Two of the men were able to walk to the waiting ambulance, while the third was conveyed on a stretcher.

A spokeswoman for the Gilbert Bain Hospital said on Tuesday afternoon that two of th men had been discharged again while the third man was in a comfortable condition in hospital.

Helicopter winchman Friedie Manson said: “We were tasked by Shetland coastguard this morning to go to the standby vessel Enea which works in the Tern field.

“Three people had been in the water. One was quite serious, the other two were stable and walking. Our task was to go and collect them and bring them back to Shetland.”

The Tern field is operated by TAQA Bratani, the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, who purchased the field as part of Shell’s North Sea assets in 2008.

The UK registered Enea is owned by Aberdeen-based Portosalvo Ltd, an Italian-owned company. It is one of the new generation of large platform supply vessels built one year ago in Norway with capacity for 26 crew.