Marine Accident Report - Explosion and Sinking of the United States Tankship SS AMERICAN EAGLE, Gulf of Mexico, February 26 and 27, 1984

摘要

On February 26, 1984, the 661-foot-long U.S. tankship SS American Eagle was en route in ballast from Savannah, Georgia, to Orange, Texas. Three crewmembers were cleaning and gas freeing the vessel's forward cargo tanks and the cargo tanks' heating coils. About 1045, an explosion occurred in one of the forward cargo tanks. Three of the vessel's thirty crewmembers died as a result of the explosion. On the following day, the vessel sank in the Gulf of Mexico about 130 nautical miles south-southwest of New Orleans, Louisiana, while awaiting a salvage tug. Two crewmembers died and two others are missing and presumed dead as a result of the vessel's sinking. The American Eagle was valued at $7,500,000. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the explosion on board the American Eagle was the ignition of flammable gases in the No. 3 center cargo tank by a steam-induced electrostatic discharge resulting from the crew's decision to use steam to power an air-mover ventilator fitted with a long plastic sleeve without recognizing the hazard created by the introduction of steam into an explosive environment.