About 4:50 a.m. on October 23, 1996, in Tiger Pass, Louisiana, the crew of a Bean Horizon Corporation dredge dropped a stern spud into the bottom of the channel in preparation for dredging operations. The spud struck and ruptured a 12-inch-diameter submerged natural gas steel pipeline owned by Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company. The pressurized natural gas released from the pipeline enveloped the stern of the dredge and an accompanying tug, then ignited, destroying the dredge and the tug. No fatalities resulted from the accident. The safety issues discussed in this report are the adequacy of Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company's practices and procedures for locating, marking, and maintaining markers for gas transmission pipelines through navigable waterways; the lack of Federal requirements for placing and maintaining permanent markers where gas and hazardous liquid pipelines cross navigable waterways; and the adequacy of Bean Horizon Corporation's vessel emergency and crew accounting procedures.
National Transportation Safety Board Pipeline Accident Summary Report: Natural Gas Pipeline Rupture and Fire during Dredging of Tiger Pass, Louisiana, October 23, 1996
1998
24 pages
Report
No indication
English
Transportation Accident Briefs: Pipeline
NTIS | 1984
Transportation Accident Briefs: Pipeline
NTIS | 1984