An oil rig that exploded yesterday sank into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday. So far there have been no sign of 11 missing workers, the USA Today reported.
The Deepwater Horizon sank about 10 a.m. after burning for roughly 36 hours. Rescue teams scouring the wreckage site, about 42 miles off the Louisiana coast, have found no signs of the 11 workers of the oil platform 126 crewmembers. Seventeen people were found injured, four of them critically.
Authorities’ concern is the aftermath of the oil rig blast. A large 1-by-5-mile sheen of crude oil and other substances has spread from the site of the rig's sinking. It's unclear how much crude will continue to flow from the wrecked rig. On Wednesday, Landry said the rig was spewing about 13,000 gallons of crude oil per hour.
Coast Guard crews have readied planes that drop substances that break up the crude, Landry said. Officials at BP, which leased the rig, have also dispatched skimming boats and about 1 million feet of boom, or plastic tubing that surround and contain spills, said Dave Rainey, vice president of BP's Gulf of Mexico exploration. "It certainly has the potential to be a major spill," he said.