The National Transportation Safety Board has opened the public docket as part of its ongoing investigation into the April 13, 2021, fatal capsizing of the liftboat Seacor Power near Port Fourchon.
According to the NTSB, the docket for the investigation includes more than 8,000 pages of factual information, including interview transcripts, a meteorology report and other investigative materials.
As the investigation continues, they say, additional material may be added to the docket as it becomes available.
"The docket contains only factual information collected by NTSB investigators; no conclusions about how or why the Seacor Power capsized should be drawn from the information within the docket," they say.
Analysis, findings, recommendations and probable cause determinations related to the capsizing will be issued by the NTSB in a final report at a later date.
The NTSB says a rain squall passed over the Seacor Power as it transited the open waters of the gulf. Visibility dropped and the winds increased significantly, so crew decided to lower the Seacor Power's legs to the seafloor to hold the vessel in position until the storm passed. When the legs began to descend, the crewmember at the helm attempted to turn the vessel into the winds. Before the turn was completed, the Seacor Power heeled to starboard and capsized. Nineteen personnel were aboard the vessel, including nine crew, two galley staff, and eight offshore workers. Six people were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard and good Samaritan vessels, six people died and seven people are missing and presumed dead.
The public docket is available online.
Last year, the Coast Guard held a two-week-long panel hearing on the fatal capsizing. KATC covered the hearings and you can read a recap of them here.
A preliminary report on the capsizing was published in May 2021. Read that document here.
At the one-year mark of the disaster, crewmembers of the Seacor Power were memorialized on the Lady of the Gulf statue in Port Fourchon. See that story here
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