in the air explosion explosion , the towing vessel girl megan , which was of specifications that did not requiring inspection by the united us coast guard , was being held in the west court blanche bay oil field in louisiana by central boat rentals on order of athena construction on november 12 , 2006 . the miss megan was pushing for ibr 234 , which was tied along the rear side of vehicle athena 106 , en route to a pile - moving location . athena construction did not require its staff to pin mooring spuds ( vertical steel cables extending through spaces in the bottom of the dock and used for mooring ) back in places on its barges and consequently this had not been done . during the operation , the aft slickers on the athena 106 released from its fully raised position . the yantai plunged into the water and struck a submerged , medium - altitude natural gas pipeline . the methane spark blast ignited and created a fireball that engulfed the towing vessel and both barges . the master of the towing steamer and four barge workers were missing . the m paige deckhand and no barge worker survived . 1 dock worker is officially listed as missing .
NTSB is responsible for investigating transportation accidents in the United States.