Oil rig sinks, 11 missing workers

Oil rig sinks, 11 missing workers

NEW ORLEANS — A deep-water oil rig that suffered a massive explosion two days ago has sunk in the Gulf of Mexico, the Coast Guard said Thursday. Eleven workers are still missing.

Coast Guard teams on Thursday had been battling the blaze on the Deepwater Horizon, which had listed more throughout the night, tipping increasingly toward the sea. Supply vessels were shooting water into the rig to try and control the flames enough to keep it from sinking.

The rig had deteriorated badly throughout the morning.

Aerial searches for the missing workers had resumed at daybreak Thursday. Calm seas and sunny weather made conditions favorable to continue the search, said Petty Officer Tom Atkeson, a Coast Guard spokesman.

A Coast Guard helicopter and rescue plane scanned the deep seas off Louisiana's coast while two cutters scoured the waters from below for any trace of the missing crew from the Deepwater Horizon, a drilling rig that exploded Tuesday night, said Petty Officer Ashley Butler, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.

Coast Guard rescue teams have covered about 1,940 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico since late Tuesday looking for the missing members, she said.

"Right now the Coast Guard's main focus is search and rescue and will continue to search," Butler said.

There were 126 people aboard the semi-submerged drilling rig when it exploded and burst into flames about 50 miles southeast of Venice, La., said Rear Adm. Mary Landry, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard's 8th District. Most of the crew was ferried off the burning rig by nearby boats, she said. At least 17 people were injured; four critically.

The exact cause of the explosion was still unknown. An official with Transocean, the Houston-based company that owns the rig, said it appeared to be a "blowout," a pressure surge of oil or natural gas that thrusts up unexpectedly through the rig.

Blowouts are often caught and the main valve sealed to prevent explosions, said Adrian Rose, a Transocean vice president.

"In this case, we don't know why we were unable to control it," he said.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) and Coast Guard are investigating.

Coast Guard officials were getting ready to combat any major environmental spillage from the crippled rig. Marine safety technicians were analyzing the spillage from circling helicopters.

The Deepwater Horizon has been belching out 13,000 gallons of crude oil per hour, though most of it was burning off in the fire, Landry said. The rig also has submerged tanks filled with 700,000 gallons of diesel fuel that had not ignited.

"It's a potential environmental threat," Butler said. "We're preparing in advance to take care of that and mitigate any environmental impact."

Relatives waited anxiously Thursday for hourly updates. Family members of one missing worker, Shane Roshto of Amite, Miss., filed a lawsuit in New Orleans on Thursday accusing the rig's owner of negligence.

The suit said he was thrown overboard by the explosion and is feared dead, though it did not indicate how family members knew that was what happened to him. The suit names Transocean Ltd., which owns the rig, and oil giant BP, which contracted it. A Transocean spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment and BP wouldn't discuss the suit.

The family of Dewey Revette, a 48-year-old from southeast Mississippi, said he was also among the missing. He worked as a driller on the rig and had been with the company for 29 years.

"We're all just sitting around waiting for the phone to ring and hoping for good news. And praying about it," Revette's 23-year-old daughter, Andrea Cochran, told the Associated Press on Thursday.

 

Source: [ USAToday.com ]