6 Dead, 5 Missing in Bayou as Oil-Drilling Rig Capsizes

An oil-drilling rig with 22 crewmen aboard capsized and sank in a murky, remote bayou, killing at least six persons and leaving five missing and feared trapped inside the hull, officials said Tuesday.

Rescue operations were hampered by a thunderstorm, but the weather was calm at the time of the accident on the rig Tonkawa, which was operated by the Temple Drilling Co. of Houston.

Twenty-two crewmen were aboard when the Tonkawa capsized late Monday in Bayou Chene, Temple’s president, Don Patteson, said. Eleven were rescued, six died and five were missing, he said Tuesday evening. Earlier, the Coast Guard and the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office had said that 23 persons were aboard.

Accident Unexplained

“We have no logical explanation at this point for what happened,” Patteson said in a telephone interview from his Houston office.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent two investigators to the scene, Ira Furman, a board spokesman in Washington, said, and the Coast Guard also was investigating.

The drilling barge capsized as it was being towed by three tugboats, making it a transportation accident that comes under the safety board’s jurisdiction, Furman said.

One of the survivors said that he had awakened at about 11:15 p.m. Monday and found water flooding the bunk room. He would not permit his name to be used. He said that many of the crew members were unable to swim, and he pulled two of them to safety before the rig overturned in 19 feet of water.

Nine crewmen escaped from the rig as it capsized and were pulled from the water by work boats. Two others were rescued after being trapped for five hours inside the hull, witnesses said. Patteson confirmed that 11 were rescued.

The St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office sent divers to the overturned rig and heard tapping noises, according to initial reports. Later, voice communication was established, and divers used torches to cut through the bottom of the hull and pull two persons to safety.

Divers groped through the dark interior of the rig during the afternoon, and the underwater search continued until about 8:15 p.m. The search will be resumed at 7 a.m., authorities said.

Five of the six men killed were identified as Kent Romero of New Iberia, La.; James Welch Jr. of Morgan City, La.; Burleigh Mire of Church Point, La., Danny M. Droddy of Eunice, La., and Randal Roberts of Meedham, Ala. The other body was not identified.

The rig is a 200-foot-long, 54-foot-wide barge that can be jacked up above the floor of a marsh on legs to form a stable drilling platform.

Bottom Above Water

The barge came to rest at a 45-degree angle, with only part of its bottom and part of one side above water, Coast Guard spokesman Mark Kugelberg said.

All the survivors were reported in good condition, one with a fractured shinbone at Lakewood Hospital, the rest with bumps and bruises.

“I feel pretty good,” said Charles Taylor, 23, of Hazelhurst, Miss., one of the survivors, who was interviewed by telephone from his hospital room. “I just haven’t had any sleep. My company asked me not to discuss this with the press.”

The thunderstorm that hampered rescue operations was one of several that swept across the Gulf Coast, spawning tornadoes, waterspouts and 70-m.p.h. winds that killed two persons in the New Orleans area.