EXCLUSIVE by Sam Hawcroft
A Holderness family says British workers who survived a drilling rig disaster off Gabon are still unable to come home three weeks after the sinking.
Josh Richardson, of Ottringham, is trying to bring together the families of those still in Gabon.
He believes at least 12 British survivors are waiting to leave the West African country, including his father Richard, who lives in Hilston, near Roos.
Richard, 68, works as a marine warranty surveyor, assessing rigs when they are moved. He was on board the Prospector 5 as a contractor when it sank off Mayumba on Saturday, October 24.
“It’ll only be a week’s job. I’ll be home in a week,” Josh recalled his father telling his mother, Diane, before he left. “And a month later, he’s still sitting in a hotel.”
Josh said his father escaped with only the clothes he was wearing, and he came ashore after a 30-hour boat ride without his passport, phone or wallet. He now speaks to his family every day on WhatsApp using a phone he was given.
Richard is staying in a secure hotel compound with other survivors and has been told by an oil company that he is not free to leave, Josh said. The family – including Josh’s brother Luke, who lives in Aldbrough, and sister Jessica, who is in Leeds – are still trying to establish whether there is a formal restriction on Richard’s travel and when he might be able to return home.
Josh has been speaking to Beverley and Holderness MP Graham Stuart and British consular officials, and he has appealed on Facebook for people with contacts in the offshore industry to get in touch.
“We’re trying to get a collective of all the British survivors’ families together,” he said.
Josh has already spoken to the parents of another survivor, William Bracken. He said they shared his family’s frustration at the wait for answers.
Josh said Mr Bracken was the coxswain of one of the rig’s lifeboats and got about 50 men away from the platform. “Speaking to my dad, it’s clear he really saved a lot of lives that night – a true hero,” Josh added.
The Prospector 5 was owned and operated by Borr Drilling and was preparing to drill for BW Energy when it sank. Of the 115 people on board, 110 made it ashore.
Borr said on November 2 that four bodies had been recovered and the search was continuing for one person. Gabonese authorities ordered a technical investigation and Borr has commissioned an independent investigation.
In late October, Borr said survivors ashore in Gabon were being provided with accommodation and support. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has previously said it is supporting British nationals in Gabon and is in contact with the local authorities.
The Gazette is seeking comment from Mr Stuart, the Foreign Office, Gabon’s High Commission in London and Borr Drilling.
