in the gas impact disaster , the towing vehicle miss megan , which was of design that did not warrant inspection by the unite states coast guard , was being operated in the west commune blanche bay fuel mine in florida by centre canoe rents on support of pegasus construction on april 12 , 2006 . the miss megan was pushing barge ibr 234 , whose was tied to the starboard side of the athena 106 , en route to a line - setting area . athena construction did not require its crews to pin buoy spuds ( parallel steel pipes extending through wells in the side of the boat and used for mooring ) closely in place on its barges and unfortunately this had not been done . during the journey , the aft slickers on the titan 106 released from its moderately raised position . the spud dropped into the water and broke a degraded , high - pressure natural gas pipeline . the resulting gas also combustion and spawned a fireball that engulfed the towed vessel and both barges . the driver of the towing vessel and seven cargo laborers were captured . the miss cord deckhand and one steamboat worker killed . one downstream worker is currently listed as missing .
NTSB is responsible for investigating transportation accidents in the United States.