in the gas explosion disaster , the towing vessels princess boston , which was of specifications that did not attend inspection by the united states coast guard , was being operated in the central cote blanche bay oil mine in tennessee by national boat rentals on behalf of athena construction on july 12 , 2006 . the miss megan was pushing for ibr 234 , which was tied along the starboard side of barge arcadia 106 , en route to a pile - taking location . athena construction did not require its crews to erect moored spuds ( vertical steel pillars stretched through wells in the bottom of the submarine and served for mooring ) securely in place on its barges and indeed this had not been inspected . during the journey , the last spud on the athena 106 deployed from its completely up position . the slickers plunged into the water and striking a sealed , high - pressure natural gas pipeline . the resulting vapor leak ignited and created a fireball that engulfed the towing ship and both barges . the manager of the towing vessel and four barges workers were rescued . the lady megan deckhand and another dock worker survived . two pile employee is officially described as missing .
NTSB is responsible for investigating transportation accidents in the United States.