About 0930, on June 1979, a buried 4-inch-diameter, high-pressure, natural gas pipeline was separated at a collar by a mooring spud dropped from the crane barge C. L. DILL 10 as the barge was being maneuvered by a tugboat alongside tank battery No. 205 in a channel of the Texaco, Inc., oil field in the Garden Island Bay section of the Mississippi River Delta. Gas, escaping under 700-psig pressure, was ignited by an unknown source and set the barge, tugboat, and tank battery on fire. Four of the six persons on the barge drowned in their attempt to escape. The fire was extinguished about 1030; damage was estimated at $500,000. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the dropping of a mooring spud without first surveying the channel near the tank battery to determine if active pipelines crossed beneath the channel to and from the oil wells. Contributing to the accident were the absence of posted signs prohibiting anchoring at the tank battery, and the decision of the crane operator to deviate from the planned work schedule. The failure of some of the crewman to use available lifesaving equipment contributed to the loss of life.
Marine Accident Report--Crane Barge C. L. DILL 10 Fire, Garden Island Bay, Mississippi River Delta, June 5, 1979
1980
21 pages
Report
No indication
English
Old River Diversion, Mississippi River. Report 3: Barge Barrier Study: Hydraulic Model Investigation
HENRY – Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW) | 1984
|Cincinnati river-rail terminal of Mississippi valley Barge line
Engineering Index Backfile | 1931
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