Hunt for oil rig disaster victims' families

More than 120 people were killed when the Alexander Kielland platform capsized in 1980

Researchers into an oil rig disaster which killed 123 workers more than 40 years ago are seeking information about two Britons who died.

The Alexander Kielland platform capsized in stormy weathers in the Norwegian North Sea oilfield in March 1980, with 22 British workers among those killed.

The Norwegian Petroleum Museum in Stavanger is compiling a comprehensive history of the disaster and hopes to contact the relatives of two men about whom very little is known.

Families from the UK are still calling for questions to be answered but the Norwegian authorities have ruled out a new inquiry.

The Kielland, a French-built floating platform, was being used as an accommodation block for nearby rigs when one of its five legs broke off in heavy seas causing it to overturn on 27 March 1980.

Among those killed were five men from Cleator Moor in Cumbria, with their families saying they are still searching for answers about the causes of the disaster.

Researchers at the museum in Stavanger said there were two British men they still wanted to trace the families of.

They are:

• John Michael Harris, 29 and from Grimsby

• John Tegowski, 29 and from Nottinghamshire

Details of a third man from South Shields, about whom an appeal had earlier been made, have been recovered.

Project leader Else Tungland were "trying to locate all survivors and bereaved" and the three men were the last Britons yet to have their families tracked down.

Families of victims have formed the Kielland Network to support each other and push the Norwegian government to reopen investigations into the disaster.

Norwegian authorities investigated at the time and a subsequent review found there had been errors, although a new inquiry was ruled out.