NTSB Investigates Gasline Explosion

A tugboat and barge caught on fire here Thursday, Oct. 12, 2006, after reportedly striking a natural gas pipeline. Photograph courtesy of Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans

The National Transportation Safety Board has sent a team of five investigators to the scene of a fire involving a towboat with two barges and a natural gas pipeline in West Cote Blanche Bay near Morgan City, LA. The accident occurred on October 12, when a piling dropped from one of the barges and struck a submerged high-pressure gas line, causing the line to rupture and catch fire. Preliminary information is that three people were killed and three are missing. This will be a joint investigation with the U.S. Coast Guard. The NTSB Investigator-in-Charge is Morgan Turrell.