11 still missing after oil platform inferno
Source: Agencies |
April 23, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SURVIVORS of a thunderous blast aboard an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana were being reunited with their families at a suburban New Orleans hotel yesterday as the search for 11 missing workers continued.
About 100 workers who made it to a supply boat after Tuesday night's explosion, arrived in Port Fourchon yesterday where they were checked by doctors.
"I've seen a lot of things, but I've never seen anything like that," said a visibly tired worker, who declined to give his name, as he got in a car to leave with a woman.
Other workers approached by reporters at the hotel declined to comment.
Workers could be seen milling about the hotel, some taking cigarette breaks. Others got in cars and left.
Seventeen people were injured and taken to hospitals, four in critical condition, in what could be one of the nation's deadliest offshore drilling accidents of the past half-century.
Meanwhile, Coast Guard rescuers in two cutters searched overnight for the missing, though no one had been spotted, said Lieutenant Sue Kerver. The air search, suspended overnight, resumed at dawn.
The rig, which is owned by Transocean Ltd, was under contract to the oil giant BP and doing exploratory drilling. Company officials would not comment on the survivors' conditions.
Authorities could not say when the flames might die out on the 122-by-76-meter rig, according to the Transocean's Website. A column of boiling black smoke rose hundreds of meters as fireboats shot streams of water at the blaze. Officials said the damage to the environment appeared minimal so far.
Adrian Rose, vice president of Transocean, said the explosion appeared to be a blowout, in which natural gas or oil forces its way up a well pipe and smashes the equipment. But precisely what went wrong was under investigation.
A total of 126 workers were aboard. Seventy-nine were Transocean workers, six were BP employees and 41 were contracted.
The Coast Guard said the 17 taken by air or sea to hospitals suffered burns, broken legs and smoke inhalation.
About 100 workers who made it to a supply boat after Tuesday night's explosion, arrived in Port Fourchon yesterday where they were checked by doctors.
"I've seen a lot of things, but I've never seen anything like that," said a visibly tired worker, who declined to give his name, as he got in a car to leave with a woman.
Other workers approached by reporters at the hotel declined to comment.
Workers could be seen milling about the hotel, some taking cigarette breaks. Others got in cars and left.
Seventeen people were injured and taken to hospitals, four in critical condition, in what could be one of the nation's deadliest offshore drilling accidents of the past half-century.
Meanwhile, Coast Guard rescuers in two cutters searched overnight for the missing, though no one had been spotted, said Lieutenant Sue Kerver. The air search, suspended overnight, resumed at dawn.
The rig, which is owned by Transocean Ltd, was under contract to the oil giant BP and doing exploratory drilling. Company officials would not comment on the survivors' conditions.
Authorities could not say when the flames might die out on the 122-by-76-meter rig, according to the Transocean's Website. A column of boiling black smoke rose hundreds of meters as fireboats shot streams of water at the blaze. Officials said the damage to the environment appeared minimal so far.
Adrian Rose, vice president of Transocean, said the explosion appeared to be a blowout, in which natural gas or oil forces its way up a well pipe and smashes the equipment. But precisely what went wrong was under investigation.
A total of 126 workers were aboard. Seventy-nine were Transocean workers, six were BP employees and 41 were contracted.
The Coast Guard said the 17 taken by air or sea to hospitals suffered burns, broken legs and smoke inhalation.
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