Greg Southeard

Greg Southeard joined Dr J H Burgoyne and Partners in 1983 and became a Partner in 1989.  He has worked all over the world investigating the causes of and giving advice on the prevention of, fires and explosions.  In particular he has investigated fires and explosions on ships including general cargo, chemical and oil tankers, bulk carriers, passenger, and Ro-Ro vessels.  He has given advice on the safe handling and storage of dangerous chemicals, explosives and other general cargo and advice on the safe extinguishment of fires on board ships.

Mr Southeard has carried out major investigations into solid phase and gas phase explosions.  These included various firework incidents in the UK, an ammonium nitrate producing factory in Zambia, an explosives factory in Spain, a fireworks factory in Ireland and an explosives store in Sumatra.  As a result of the latter he was asked by a leading oil company to carry out a full safety audit of all their facilities in Sumatra.

Mr Southeard has investigated aircraft accidents all over the world and these included the loss of:

 - Air India 747 off Cork,  
 - South African Airways 747 off Mauritius,
 - Pan Am 747 over Lockerbie,
 - Avianca 727 near Bogota,
 - Philippine Airlines 737 at Manila,
 - Air Lauda 767 in Thailand
- US Air 737 in Pittsburgh,  
- TWA 747 off New York, and
- Swissair MD11 off Nova Scotia
- Qatar Airways Airbus A300 in Abu Dhabi

During these investigations he liaised and worked closely with experts from various agencies in the United States of America, including the FBI, NTSB and FAA. He also worked closely with Government Agencies in the countries where the incident occurred.

Mr Southeard has given expert evidence in Courts of Law, Inquests, Arbitrations, Public Inquiries and mediations all over the world.  In addition he has been asked to present numerous talks and lectures on Fires and Explosions throughout the world.

From 1990 to 1993 he was Resident Director of our office in Singapore which involved working all over the Far East and Australia. 

Prior to joining Burgoynes Mr Southeard was a Forensic Scientist at the Metropolitan Police Laboratory in London.  The work involved examinations at scenes of crimes and in the Laboratory and the presentation of evidence in many criminal trials.  He spent three years researching into new analytical techniques for Forensic Science and was the author of many papers on the subject.  During the last four years at the Laboratory he was involved in the investigation of all the major terrorist activities in London and Southern England.  This involved giving evidence at terrorist trials at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey.