NTSB Considering Trinity II Accident Report April 9
Four workers died in September 2011 when the crew abandoned the listing liftboat in the Bay of Campeche after one of its legs buckled during a raging tropical storm.
The National Transportation Safety Board has scheduled an April 9 public meeting in Washington, D.C., to consider two accident reports, one a Eurocopter AS350 crash related to fuel exhaustion near Mosby, Mo., on Aug. 26, 2011, and the other a Sept. 8, 2011, mishap that killed four workers from the liftboat Trinity II, located in the Bay of Campeche about 8 miles offshore of the port of Frontera.
The liftboat crew had to abandon it during Tropical Storm Nate when one of the rig's legs buckled and the liftboat partially submerged, but the storm's winds blew their main lifeboat away before they could board it. Ten men jumped into the sea wearing life jackets and clung to a floating platform after making a distress call. The storm delayed rescue and four ultimately died.
Seven of the men worked for Houston-based Geokinetics Inc. and were conducting a 3D seismic survey for a project of Pemex, the Mexican state oil company, while the liftboat was owned and operated by Trinity Liftboat Services of New Iberia, La.
Geokinetics recently filed under chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to complete a financial restructuring of the company. The company has indicated it intends to continue operating in the normal course of business without interruption and its pre-packaged plan of reorganization has been overwhelmingly approved by stakeholders.