Rig families finding comfort together 46 years on

British families who lost husbands and fathers in an oil rig disaster say they are finding comfort from meeting each other for the first time in more than 46 years.

Members of seven affected families gathered in north-east England, united by their grief from the Kielland disaster of March 1980, in which 123 men were killed in the Norwegian oil field including 22 Brits.

For some it was the first time they had met anyone else struck by the tragedy, in which a floating accommodation platform capsized in stormy seas after one of its five legs broke off.

Plans for a compensation scheme were approved by the Norwegian parliament in June 2025 and the government said it was still drawing up a plan.

While many families have joined the Kielland Network for survivors and the bereaved, set up by the late Kian Reme whose brother Rolf was among the victims, others did not even know the group existed.

Laura Fleming from Durham, whose father Michael, 37, was one of those killed on 27 March 1980, has been finding British families and survivors to invite them to join the group.

Laura, whose father was one of five men from Cleator Moor in Cumbria to die in the disaster, said there were now only two British survivors still to get in touch with.

Over the weekend, Laura hosted a meet-up in Newcastle and Durham, with 11 people from seven families joining from across the country.

Many still did not know the extent of what happened and how multiple failures contributed to the high death toll, she said.

Meeting up would "give some of the families the opportunity to share their experiences and find out more about what actually happened", Laura said.

"This weekend is very much bittersweet," she said beforehand. "We are meeting because of a tragic disaster which took the lives of our loved ones and changed ours forever, but we will gain the love and support of each other through being united."

Meg Macdonald, whose husband Robbie Morrison was one of those killed, said she had initially thought the letter from Laura in March inviting her to join the group was a scam.

She was 25 and had only been married for a few months when her husband perished.

She and her second husband Malcolm Macdonald travelled from Inverurie near Aberdeen to meet other bereaved families for the first time.

"I just could not believe how much was going on," Meg said, adding she, like many families before being contacted by the network, had thought of it as just a tragic accident.

Robbie's body was returned to her three and a half years after the disaster, but it was only when she spoke to Laura and the network she discovered others had also had such a long wait.

"It was very comforting to know I was not the only one," Meg said. "I always felt like it was just us."

Also at the gathering were Joan Dawson and her daughter Jane Brooks, the wife and daughter of Kielland victim Brian Dowson, 36.

Brian's body has never been found, and Joan and Jane, from Lowestoft, said a lack of information about the disaster and what happened to him only compounded their grief.

"All of these years just not knowing anything," Jane, who was 10 when her father died, said.

"I used to think did he make it out and was living somewhere."

She said she could not talk about her father for years and felt her life was "on hold".

Joan said the widows were juggling grieving for their husbands while having to get on with life for their children.

She said she was still angry at the failure to answer many questions she had about the disaster.

Jane said the authorities and companies involved needed to "own up to the issues" and it "should have happened many years ago" to help the families get closure.

Getting together with other families had been amazing, Jane said, adding everyone had the same "understanding" and helped each other piece together what had happened on the night of the disaster.

Jayne Fleck, from Norwich, said the death of her father John Murray, 32, had a "ripple effect" on many people and a lifelong impact on all the bereaved.

"We are always waiting for [the victims] to come home," Jayne, who was 11 when he died, said.

Jayne said she was "very angry at the world" for a long time and she still wanted truth and justice for all those killed and the loved ones they left behind.

Jayne said she had "no idea" the Kielland Network existed and was pushing for information until three years ago, when the group's founder Kian Reme came to the UK to meet families.

"We are joined together by something so sad, we do not have to explain everything because we all have the same feelings already," Jayne said.

"We are all instantly very comfortable in each other's company, we can all be damaged goods together."

Their husbands and fathers were all friends at sea, their lives entwined, so being able to keep those bonds going in their memory was extra special, Jayne said.

The network is still waiting for news from the Norwegian government about a compensation scheme, which was approved by the Storting - parliament - by 53 votes to 51 last summer.

A government spokesman said the Ministry of Energy would report further on the scheme at a "later non-specified date".

Laura said she and the network were "dismayed" by the "open-ended" process, with members dying "of troubled minds and broken hearts" before seeing Norway "make amends" for the disaster.

After an investigation, the National Audit Office of Norway said the authorities "did not bear the primary responsibility for the accident" but there were "serious shortcomings" in how they "fulfilled their responsibilities in the aftermath of the accident" which caused those affected to "suffer from significant health problems and a reduced quality of life".

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