The body of one of two missing Filipino workers has been found after a blaze on a platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
The fire was caused by workers welding a pipe on a deck of the shallow-water platform owned by Houston-based Black Elk Energy. Eleven of the twenty-two people on board the rig were evacuated and nine others were taken to hospital by helicopter.
The victim, who was employed by Grand Isle Shipyard Inc, was discovered by divers after the suspension of the Coast Guard search which included three helicopter crews, a Coast Guard cutter and a plane. A second worker died some days later in hospital. The body of the other missing man has not yet been found.
The platform sits in 56 feet of water, 17 miles south of Grand Isle, Louisiana. Production had been shut down since mid-August and an investigation by the Bureau of Safety and environmental Enforcement was immediatly started.