Helicopter rescue: Coast Guard picks up injured worker.
Coast Guard airlifts man from Transocean rig
The Coast Guard airlifted a crewman from the semi-submersible rig Transocean Marianas to shore for treatment at a hospital in New Orleans for a foot injury suffered early this morning while working aboard the semisub in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico.
According to the Coast Guard, a heavy box fell on the 29-year-old man’s foot. The extent of the unidentified man’s injury or his current condition is not known.
Transocean spokesman Guy Cantwell told UpstreamOnline that the man worked for Longnecker Rigging, a Louisiana-based contractor.
The rig reported the injury to Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans at 3:50 am and requested a medical evacuation.
Fog kept the MH-65C rescue helicopter sidelined until 7:17 am when it departed. The chopper stopped to refuel at Shell’s Mars tension-leg platform before arriving at the Transocean Marianas at 9:10 am.
The rig was working in Atwater Valley Block 428 about 180 miles south of New Orleans, at the time of the incident.
According to Transocean’s fleet status report, Transocean Marianas is contracted to Italian operator Eni from December 2009 through December 2011 at a day-rate of around $565,000.
The helicopter returned to the air station in Belle Chasse just before noon, transferring the injured man to a waiting ambulance which whisked him to LSU Medical Center in New Orleans.
An investigation is expected to be conducted by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an agency of the Department of Labor.