Although 11 workers are still missing from the oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana, 115 others were saved because they were able to make it safely to special lifeboats. We’re live today at Anderson/Ryan, a company in Houston that makes lifeboats. Anderson/Ryan is not the company who supplied the lifeboats that were on the rig that had the explosion, but they have similar models. We were able to look inside several lifeboats, including one that can carry up to 65 people. The boats all have the same specs mandated by the government- they’re made of fire retardant material, have diesel engines that can go about 6 knots (about 7 miles an hour) and contain special sprinkler systems. They’re also self-righting. That means if a huge wave flips the craft over, it will come right back to where it needs to be.
You can see how all these things would be critically important by imagining how harrowing it would be moments after an explosion. Survivors of this week’s explosion said they had just 5-10 minutes to evacuate the rig. Rigs come equipped with enough lifeboats to evacuate the entire crew on both sides of the vessel. That’s so if the giant rig lists to one side or the other, everyone will still find a spot in a lifeboat. The lifeboats look like small orange submarines. Once everyone’s inside safely, the hatches are closed and a helmsman will lower the craft on two cables all the way down to the sea. That trip can be about 120 feet down. Imagine that with flames coming off the rig.
Once safely in the water, the lifeboats all meet at a predetermined spot. They have food for more than a week, plus diesel fuel to run for about 24 hours. They also have radio equipment and emergency beacons. Survivors of this week’s explosion say practice is what helped them get off the boat alive. Generally crews do a full run through of their evacuation, including lowering the lifeboats into the water (if conditions are right), about once a week.