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Preface to Into the Lion's Mouth

 

 

I pulled off the cover sheet and glanced at a set of stapled papers. The top line read, "Fatal Accident Inquiry—Victor Francis Guiel and Richard Arthur Walker." It was a lengthy document with an introduction and a series of titled sections. Excited, I stuffed the papers back into the envelope and drove quickly to the college where I took the findings to the second floor of the library, sat down and inspected them. The document was not written on letterhead; it gave no hint that it was "official," nor was there a date to indicate when it had been produced. Had it not been for Murray's cover letter telling me what I was reading, I might have questioned its authenticity.

The 22-page "Determinations" were battered and torn and here and there the single-spaced text had been underlined with pencil. On the last page was a scribbled signature which I couldn't make out, but later learned was that of Douglas James Risk, the judge who had presided over the Fatal Accident Inquiry. These were his findings.

In detached, almost clinical terms, Risk described the "Contract for Hire" between the diving company and the oil company, the personnel involved, the equipment and working practices, what triggered the accident, and the attempted rescue. The last three pages were devoted to his summary and conclusions. As I read along, red flags began popping into my mind. Within the first few pages, I was given the impression that there had been an attempt to circumvent the law with respect to Richard and Skip's salary arrangements. There was also mention of a criminal trial associated with the accident, something I was unaware of. There were problems with leadership, modifications to the diving system, abandonment of critical safety gear, and questions about the security of the bell when it went into the water. The further I read, the more disturbing the report became. Equipment that should have been installed was not, and the diving vessel was brand-new, another red flag in my mind.

At one point Risk concluded that the diving contractor had been "more concerned with speed than with safety." This jibed with what I knew about the industry in general, that pressure to get the job done as fast as possible was pervasive. And then Risk explained what triggered the accident, something so simple I shook my head in disbelief, and yet it set into motion a series of wrong-headed decisions that led to one of the most awful scenarios I could have ever imagined.

The Determinations were of course only a summary of what appeared to be a very complex sequence of events; and understandably, there were gaps in the story. Motivations for critical acts were not explained, and I could not discern what the time sequences were. This missing information only generated more questions in my mind. What I needed were the dive log and the transcript of the court proceedings, if they still existed.

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