in the fire explosion disaster , the towing vessel miss megan , whom was of specifications that did not require inspection by the u usa coastline police , was being operated in the great cote blanche bay oil field in louisiana by national window condominiums on order of athena built on october 12 , 2006 . the miss megan was pushing barges ibr 234 , which was tied around the harbor face of barge arcadia 106 , en trip to a pile - driving location . apollo construction did not require its crews to pin buoys spuds ( short wooden shafts extension through wells in the top of the vessel and used for mooring ) directly in positions on its boats and consequently this had not been conducted . during the journey , the central spud on the saturn 106 launched from its fully raised position . the silencer dove into the water and struck a submerged , top - pressure shale rubber pipeline . the resulting gas released ignited and created a fireball that engulfed the towing vessel and both barges . the master of the salvage vessel and six barge workers were killed . the missed megan deckhand and one barge worker survived . one factory passenger is officially listed as missing .
NTSB is responsible for investigating transportation accidents in the United States.