Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster - One year today: remembering April 20, 2010

<TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD>100421-G-XXXXL-010 - Deepwater Horizon fire NEW ORLEANS - A Coast Guard MH-65C dolphin rescue helicopter and crew document the fire aboard the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, while searching for survivors April 21, 2010. Multiple Coast Guard helicopters, planes and cutters responded to rescue the Deepwater Horizon's 126 person crew. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Scott Lloyd. Wed 21 Apr 2010 12:39:42 AM EDT
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
USCG Press Release #1 - 21 Apr 10
<!-- *** BEGIN page content *** -->Gulf of Mexico
<TABLE class=entry-details cellSpacing=10><TBODY><TR><TH>Subject</TH><TD>USCG Press Release #1 - 21 Apr 10</TD></TR><TR><TH>Posting Date</TH><TD>2010-Apr-21</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
D8 External Affairs
U.S. Coast Guard
News Release
Date: April 21, 2010
Contact: External Affairs Office
(504) 671-2020
UPDATE 1: Coast Guard responding to oil drilling platform fire
NEW ORLEANS, La. -- Multiple Coast Guard helicopters, planes, and cutters are
responding to an explosion and fire aboard a mobile offshore drilling unit
(MODU) approximately 52 miles Southeast of Venice.
Watchstanders at the U.S. Coast Guard District Eight command center here
received a report at approximately 10 p.m. Tuesday of an explosion and fire
aboard the MODU Deepwater Horizon.
Updated reports are that the estimated 126 people on board have gotten off the
rig. Seven critical injuries were reported. Three were met by ambulance at
Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans; two were medevaced to West Jefferson
hospital in New Orleans, La. by air ambulance and two were flown to Mobile
Trauma Center in Mobile, Ala.
There are approximately 11-12 people who remain missing.
Coast Guard units responding:
Air Station New Orleans:
* Two HH-65C Dolphin rescue helicopters and crews
Aviation Training Center, Mobile, Ala.:
* One HH-65C Dolphin rescue helicopter and crew
* One HH-60 rescue helicopter and crew
* One HC-144 Ocean Sentry rescue plane and crew
In addition, the Coast Guard cutters Pompano and Zephyr are on scene and cutters
Razorbill, Pelican, and Cobia are en route to assist.
Video can be found here: http://cgvi.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_itemId=46
A next of kin hotline has been set up and the phone number is (832) 587-8554.
The fire is still burning and the cause of the fire is under investigation.
http://www.incidentnews.gov/entry/526020
----------------------------------------------------------------
Deepwater Horizon?s Final Hours
By DAVID BARSTOW, DAVID ROHDE and STEPHANIE SAUL
Published: December 25, 2010
The worst of the explosions gutted the Deepwater Horizon stem to stern.
Crew members were cut down by shrapnel, hurled across rooms and buried under smoking wreckage. Some were swallowed by fireballs that raced through the oil rig?s shattered interior. Dazed and battered survivors, half-naked and dripping in highly combustible gas, crawled inch by inch in pitch darkness, willing themselves to the lifeboat deck.
It was no better there.
That same explosion had ignited a firestorm that enveloped the rig?s derrick. Searing heat baked the lifeboat deck. Crew members, certain they were about to be cooked alive, scrambled into enclosed lifeboats for shelter, only to find them like smoke-filled ovens.
Men admired for their toughness wept. Several said their prayers and jumped into the oily seas 60 feet below. An overwhelmed young crew member, Andrea Fleytas, finally screamed what so many were thinking:
?We?re going to die!?
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/us/26spill.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1303340708-kK9mLXHnTJpiMhnpp6muSA
Firestorm Aboard the Deepwater Horizon (Photos):
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/12/26/us/20101226_spill_slideshow.html
U.S.: Escape From the Deepwater Horizon - nytimes.com/video
http://<IFRAME title="YouTube video player" height=390 src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0I44ok9vYp0" frameBorder=0 width=640 allowfullscreen></IFRAME>
<TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD>100421-G-XXXXL-010 - Deepwater Horizon fire NEW ORLEANS - A Coast Guard MH-65C dolphin rescue helicopter and crew document the fire aboard the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, while searching for survivors April 21, 2010. Multiple Coast Guard helicopters, planes and cutters responded to rescue the Deepwater Horizon's 126 person crew. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Scott Lloyd. Wed 21 Apr 2010 12:39:42 AM EDT
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
USCG Press Release #1 - 21 Apr 10
<!-- *** BEGIN page content *** -->Gulf of Mexico
<TABLE class=entry-details cellSpacing=10><TBODY><TR><TH>Subject</TH><TD>USCG Press Release #1 - 21 Apr 10</TD></TR><TR><TH>Posting Date</TH><TD>2010-Apr-21</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
D8 External Affairs
U.S. Coast Guard
News Release
Date: April 21, 2010
Contact: External Affairs Office
(504) 671-2020
UPDATE 1: Coast Guard responding to oil drilling platform fire
NEW ORLEANS, La. -- Multiple Coast Guard helicopters, planes, and cutters are
responding to an explosion and fire aboard a mobile offshore drilling unit
(MODU) approximately 52 miles Southeast of Venice.
Watchstanders at the U.S. Coast Guard District Eight command center here
received a report at approximately 10 p.m. Tuesday of an explosion and fire
aboard the MODU Deepwater Horizon.
Updated reports are that the estimated 126 people on board have gotten off the
rig. Seven critical injuries were reported. Three were met by ambulance at
Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans; two were medevaced to West Jefferson
hospital in New Orleans, La. by air ambulance and two were flown to Mobile
Trauma Center in Mobile, Ala.
There are approximately 11-12 people who remain missing.
Coast Guard units responding:
Air Station New Orleans:
* Two HH-65C Dolphin rescue helicopters and crews
Aviation Training Center, Mobile, Ala.:
* One HH-65C Dolphin rescue helicopter and crew
* One HH-60 rescue helicopter and crew
* One HC-144 Ocean Sentry rescue plane and crew
In addition, the Coast Guard cutters Pompano and Zephyr are on scene and cutters
Razorbill, Pelican, and Cobia are en route to assist.
Video can be found here: http://cgvi.uscg.mil/media/main.php?g2_itemId=46
A next of kin hotline has been set up and the phone number is (832) 587-8554.
The fire is still burning and the cause of the fire is under investigation.
http://www.incidentnews.gov/entry/526020
----------------------------------------------------------------
Deepwater Horizon?s Final Hours
By DAVID BARSTOW, DAVID ROHDE and STEPHANIE SAUL
Published: December 25, 2010
The worst of the explosions gutted the Deepwater Horizon stem to stern.
Crew members were cut down by shrapnel, hurled across rooms and buried under smoking wreckage. Some were swallowed by fireballs that raced through the oil rig?s shattered interior. Dazed and battered survivors, half-naked and dripping in highly combustible gas, crawled inch by inch in pitch darkness, willing themselves to the lifeboat deck.
It was no better there.
That same explosion had ignited a firestorm that enveloped the rig?s derrick. Searing heat baked the lifeboat deck. Crew members, certain they were about to be cooked alive, scrambled into enclosed lifeboats for shelter, only to find them like smoke-filled ovens.
Men admired for their toughness wept. Several said their prayers and jumped into the oily seas 60 feet below. An overwhelmed young crew member, Andrea Fleytas, finally screamed what so many were thinking:
?We?re going to die!?
More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/us/26spill.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1303340708-kK9mLXHnTJpiMhnpp6muSA
Firestorm Aboard the Deepwater Horizon (Photos):
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/12/26/us/20101226_spill_slideshow.html
U.S.: Escape From the Deepwater Horizon - nytimes.com/video
http://<IFRAME title="YouTube video player" height=390 src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0I44ok9vYp0" frameBorder=0 width=640 allowfullscreen></IFRAME>