The Callousness of CCC (Underwater Engineering)

Once again, a little girl will grow up not knowing how her father died.

It´s sad reading this news my deepest condolences to his family.

Typically, many offshore diving companies, hire their divers as "operators", totally as freelancers and usually by branchs or offices established on countries other than those of the mother company, with very weak labor regulations or nonexistent.

For the companies is a huge savings by not having to pay taxes on workers in their country and many divers prefer, not having to pay taxes despite having no social benefits (retirement, unemployment, medical assistance program, etc.) in their country of origin.

The problems begin when accidents occur and divers (or their families) realize that they are totally unprotected and after suffering accidents are not entitled to anything in his own country unless they themselves were paying insurance on their own.

In the company where I work, we always try to hire personnel under Spanish Laboral Law, even when they are in offshore operations, but it really is very difficult to compete in the market where other companies reduce their costs to a minimum and many divers prefer the quick money before that social benefts.

From my point of view, the solution is that large customers and governments require companies to exercise a social responsibility policy which takes into account the social benefits of their workers or their families after an accident or prolonged illness

My deepest sympathy to Breda and the family.

How this company is treating the family is absolutely inexcusable. I advise any of our membership to give this Mickey Mouse outfit a wide berth. If they do this to Pierre and his family, don't you think for a second they will not do it to you. STAY AWAY FROM CCC - WORK FOR THEM AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

It is also remarkably similar to Oceaneering's actions over the loss of Mark Dawson in 1983. Nobody from Oceaneering's Aberdeen office was allowed to speak to his father. When I found out and blew several fuses their Safety Officer agreed with me absolutely but said that his hands were tied.

Though originally an employee of Oceaneering he was by then directly employed by an American Insurance association although he was stationed in house. He blamed them explicity for this callous disregard for Mark, his relatives and his partner and unborn daughter!

However somone in that office slipped Mark's father my number so that I could fill him in on the details...a benign safety officer I suspect and I thank him for that!

I have for years pointed out That the Insurance Company absolutely controls the conduct of the diving contractor when there is a fatality but nobody seems to want to take this point up. And until it is it will just be the same old sadly. Time to wake up to the power of these Insurance bodies although the diving contractor is a co-beneficiary!

Ok .. I don't know any details of the accident. I don't anything about the laws of the country he was working in or even what country he was working in. I know very little about the company he was working for . But what I am reading here stinks. What is presented here smells of cover up to protect the contractor .. and when that happens we all lose. The main power this outfit .. CCC.. has is the power of Silence. Somehow we need to take that away from them.

We need somebody in our circles of influence of offer Brenda some help if finding out what happened. No matter what the story is .. we then need to use the power of this tool .. this forum .. and any other communication tool we can muster to make the facts public .. worldwide. If those facts are dirty .. it is even more important that the story gets out.

Is there any member or does any member know anyone who can help this family? This is one of the main reasons this organization was formed.

I fully support what G_Young is saying here. If we don't do it, then who will?

By an email that I just got we are now 335 members strong. That is 335 divers virtually in one place!. That's an almost nuclear force! We are Divers .. by nature we work in teams. Let's team up and help this lady of a fallen comrade.

Does any one member know anyone or anyone who knows anyone who can help Breda and her daughter? if so, please contact her through Mark Longstreath (the author) on this forum. He can filter, relay and start the information flowing to get her some relief.

And if anyone has any additional information on this accident or this company .. your teammates are listening ...

My most heartfelt condolences to the family, now they say their colleagues who were with him at the time of the accident? to know how it happened?

That, Carlos, is an excellent point. I know for a fact that Pierre was not in sat alone. So where are the other lads? Come on, lads - grow a set and talk to his widow.

I have sent the following inquiry to... Marine Accident Investigator's International Forum

Commodore David Squire

MAIIF Secretariat

c/o The Nautical Institute

202 Lambeth Road

London

SE1 7LQ

UK

Fax: +44 20 7401 2817

Phone: +44 1282 814998

Mob: +44 (0) 7866 313491

"On the 18th March 2012, a diver named Pierre Rossouw was killed while working for CCC onboard the NNPC Heavy Lift Ship 2000 (HLS 2000).

How can I get details of this accident. My motive is to prevent others from making the same errors or allowing the same circumstance to exist which led up to this incident.

The company, CCC, is reported to be stonewalling the family and other inquiring organizations. Please help."

This was an email request made through their web site .. http://www.maiif.org/

I'll post any response that I get.