Relatives' plea over oil platform deaths

An investigation into the accident is underway

Relatives of the two men who died onboard the Brent Bravo oil platform in the North Sea are demanding that lessons are learned from the tragedy.

Oil workers Sean McCue, 22, of Kennoway in Fife, and Keith Moncrieff, 45, of Invergowrie, Tayside died after a sudden escape of gas occurred while they were working inside one of the legs of the platform.

An investigation is under way into the cause of the incident which took place on Thursday afternoon on the platform, which lies 116 miles north-east of Lerwick, Shetland.

Neil Moncrieff, brother of one of the victims, is urging oil company Shell and the Health & Safety Executive to make sure that measures are taken to ensure that such an accident does not happen again.

Keith Moncrieff died one day before his 22-year-old daughter Jenna gave birth to his first grandchild.

Brother Neil said: "If it was cost-cutting or someone cutting corners, then they need to deal with it. Deal with the person that cut the corners.

"If not - if it was a manufacturing fault - rectify it so that no-one else ends up like my brother and no one else feels what I and my family are feeling right now."

Neil Moncrieff said his whole family were devastated

The family's lawyer, John Hall, confirmed that Mr Moncrieff's daughter had given birth to a baby girl.

He said: "Although Mr Moncrieff and his wife Helen were separated they had been married for some 21 years and his tragic death has come as a terrible shock to her and their daughter Jenna.

"Jenna on Friday gave birth to a baby girl and what should have been a day of great joy for the family has turned into a day filled with unbearable grief.

"This is an extremely distressing time for the family."

Unions have raised new concerns about a backlog of maintenance on the Brent Bravo but Shell said the Health and Safety Executive had given the a clean bill of health to its operations.

It had been thought pumps to the seabed had carried a "kickback", or pocket of gas, within an oil well, to the surface but Shell later said it believed there was a gas leak in the leg.

About 60 other non-essential platform workers were evacuated to the nearby Brent Alpha and Brent Charlie platforms so that the build-up of gas could be dealt with.

A doctor, who was flown from a nearby platform, pronounced the men dead at the scene.