The fire flashed above the liquid cascading just aft of the rig derrick, according to witnesses, and the rain of mud felled birds from the sky onto Tidewater’s supply vessel Damon Bankston stationed alongside.
Tidewater chief mate Paul Erickson, who was on board the Bankston, said he saw the “flash fire” just above the “cascade of liquid from the area of the drilling gear”.
He
