BIRMINGHAM LAWYER HELPS TO VINDICATE FIRM IN SUBMARINE TRAGEDY

Birmingham Post
Monday 30th March 2009

A high profile Midlands lawyer has played a major role in vindicating the UK company at the heart of the nuclear submarine tragedy which cost two British sailors their lives deep beneath the arctic icepack.

Darren Smith, head of risk and liability with Birmingham law firm Hill Hofstetter, acted for Molecular Products Ltd (MPL), the defence contractor which manufactured the self-contained oxygen generators (SCOG) used on HMS Tireless and other Royal Navy submarines.

Two sailors – including Paul McCann from Halesowen – died in the submarine’s forward escape compartment when a generator malfunctioned and exploded, trapping them inside.

But after a six-week inquest in Sunderland, hometown of the second victim of the blast, Anthony Huntrod, the coroner cleared the Essex-based company of any blame.

In his narrative verdict Derek Winter, the Sunderland coroner commented: “The SCOG which exploded had been manufactured by Molecular Products Ltd.

“At each stage in the manufacturing process, and at the stage of completion, proper steps were taken to avoid organic contamination, to de-grease components and to ensure the physical integrity of the unit.”

He said the firm’s production procedures were satisfactory, and the unit would not have exploded if it had been handled, inspected, stored and stowed by the MoD in accordance with MPL’s safety data sheet, which contained proper warnings as to the risk of explosion and fire.

Mr Smith said last night that the inquest into the HMS Tireless fatalities inquest held several lessons for manufacturing businesses.

“A product is much more than the physical item itself,” Mr Smith said.

“It includes all the warnings, information and advice that you provide with it.

“In MPL’s case they went much further than they were required to, and provided all of the warnings with every single box of product they supplied.

“They could have taken the view that they supplied the information at the start of the contract, and that they needed to do no more.

“Instead they re-emphasised the dangers and the correct procedure in handling their equipment every time,” he said.

“That gave its customers ample opportunity to make themselves aware of what was required in the handling of this equipment, and the dangers involved.

“The only way the SCOG on HMS Tireless could explode was by it being contaminatied by hydrocarbons and being internally damaged by mishandling as well.”

Mr Smith said the equipment entered the British fleet for the first time in 2003, but stressed that it had been tried and tested, having been in use with other navies around the world for a number of years before.

“What also emerged from the inquest was that MPL were able to demonstrate that they have very strong manufacturing quality controls,” he added.

The coroner concluded that systematic failures by the MoD led to the contamination and damage to the SCOG, resulting in the deaths of the two sailors.

During the inquest he heard that the generator that exploded may well have been one of a thousand that had been returned to service from a dump where it had been stored in the vicinity of potential contaminants.

An MoD official keen to save the government money considered the SCOGs safe because their seals appeared intact on a cursory visual inspection.

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