Oil workers lose rig-fire trauma case
Two men claiming damages for psychiatric injuries after they witnessed the 1988 Piper Alpha oil rig disaster both lost their actions in the Court of Appeal yesterday.
Francis McFarlane and William Hegarty were told by the appeal court judges that their fear was "neither reasonable nor reasonably foreseeable" and therefore EE Caledonia, owners of the Piper Alpha, did nothing to endanger their mental health. The two men had watched helplessly as friends and colleagues jumped into the blazing sea from the Piper Alpha which was being destroyed by massive gas explosions.
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