subject: A Word From The Insurers: 5 Things That Can Go Wrong For You [print this page] Murphy's Law is a poisonous meme that should be banished from the annals of history; but since we've already mentioned it, we might as well. So if anything that can go wrong will go wrong, how does this apply to you when you're on an offshore oil platform?
*The Commute: Statistically speaking, helicopters are a very safe mode of transportation. There are no errant drivers and small animals that cause you to swerve off a cliff. But it would be reckless to ignore the inherent risks of commuting to a tiny spot in an ocean that spews oil on a monthly basis.
*The Elements: Of course, George Clooney and his Perfect Storm is bound to creep up, even though an offshore oil platform crew isn't strictly speaking in a maritime profession at all. But depending on your exact location, hurricanes are almost an inevitable concern. In the worst case scenarios - the so-called once-in-a-century cases - they can break the rig outright and wreak havoc on any unfortunate crew members that haven't been evacuated.
But as anyone who's actually worked in a ship will attest, the devil is often in the detail, or specifically, in the form of a rather slippery deck. A strong gale multiplied to a wet floor equals to a slipped disc and months of physiotherapy.
*The Burn: At the risk of nagging you again, you need to bear in mind that you'll be handling things that are designed to explode in a cast-iron chamber for the end-user. And since they don't come in the nicest packaging available - viscous liquid and vacuous gas seem to be 'Mother Natures preferred wrapping paper - enormous pressure needs to be induced from the top down.
Fatalities, burns and amputations are very rare, but they nevertheless occur from time to time.
*The Team: The reason you'll mature into a respected team member in no time at all isn't one of fuzzy altruism. It's because tasks need to be performed collectively, and one person's mistake is another's insurance claim.
You needn't worry about being sued into bankruptcy and suicide if you made a mistake that results in an accident: personal liability isn't applicable when you're actually on your shift unless you deliberately stab an annoying colleague with a screwdriver.
However, a mistake on your part can definitely lead to accidents, and they can get as serious as it gets.
*The Sink: By which we mean the whole thing falls to bits. After all, you will be working atop a wonky artificial structure that is exposed to almost every natural force there is short of a nuclear reaction. And yes, oil rigs have collapsed or sunk into the sea before, some due to unforeseeable circumstances, other due to human negligence.
So if you want to sign up for one of the biggest challenges in your life then sleep over it and weigh these possibilities. These are the risks, but then, sometimes they double as a reward in their own right.
