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The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the BP oil disaster or the Macondo blowout) is a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is the largest offshore spill in U.S. history and among the largest oil spills in history. The spill stemmed from a sea-floor oil gusher that resulted from the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion. The explosion killed 11 platform workers and injured 17 others. On July 15, the leak was largely stopped by capping the gushing oil wellhead. The drilling of relief wells to permanently close the well is ongoing.

The quasi-official Flow Rate Technical Group estimated the oil well was leaking 35,000 to 60,000 barrels (1,500,000 to 2,500,000 US gallons; 5,600 to 9,500 cubic metres) of crude oil per day. This volume is approximately equal to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill every four to seven days. The exact flow rate is uncertain due to the difficulty of installing measurement devices at that depth and is a matter of debate. The resulting oil slick covered at least 2,500 square miles (6,500 km²), fluctuating daily depending on weather conditions. Scientists have also reported immense underwater plumes of dissolved oil not visible at the surface.

The spill continues to cause extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats as well as the Gulf’s fishing and tourism industries. Crews have been working to protect hundreds of miles of beaches, wetlands and estuaries along the northern Gulf coast, using skimmer ships, floating containment booms, anchored barriers, and sand-filled barricades along shorelines. The U.S. Government has named BP as the responsible party, and officials have committed to holding the company accountable for all cleanup costs and other damage.

Background

The Deepwater Horizon was a 9-year-old semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit, a massive floating, dynamically positioned drilling rig that could operate in waters up to 8,000 feet (2,400 m) deep and drill down to 30,000 feet (9,100 m). It was owned by Transocean, operated under the Marshallese flag of convenience, and was under lease to BP from March 2008 to September 2013. At the time of the explosion, it was drilling an exploratory well at a water depth of approximately 5,000 feet (1,500 m) in the Macondo Prospect, located in the Mississippi Canyon Block 252 of the Gulf of Mexico in the United States exclusive economic zone about 41 miles (66 km) off the Louisiana coast. Production casing was being installed and cemented by Halliburton Energy Services. Once the cementing was complete, the well would have been tested for integrity and a cement plug set, after which no further activities would take place until the well was later activated as a subsea producer. BP is the operator and principal developer of the Macondo Prospect with a 65% share, while 25% is owned by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, and 10% by MOEX Offshore 2007, a unit of Mitsui. BP leased the mineral rights for Macondo at the Minerals Management Service’s lease sale in March 2008.

During March and early April, several platform workers and supervisors expressed concerns with well control. At approximately 9:45 p.m. CDT on April 20, 2010, methane gas from the well, under high pressure, shot all the way up and out of the drill column, expanded onto the platform, and then ignited and exploded. Fire then engulfed the platform. Most of the workers were evacuated by lifeboats or were airlifted out by helicopter, but eleven workers were never found despite a three-day Coast Guard search operation, and are presumed to have died in the explosion. Efforts by multiple ships to douse the flames were unsuccessful. After burning for approximately 36 hours, the Deepwater Horizon sank on the morning of April 22, 2010.

On the afternoon of April 22, a large oil slick began to spread at the former rig site. Two remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) unsuccessfully attempted to cap the well. BP announced that it was deploying a ROV to the site to assess whether oil was flowing from the well. On April 23, a ROV reportedly found no oil leaking from the sunken rig and no oil flowing from the well. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry expressed cautious optimism of zero environmental impact, stating that no oil was emanating from either the wellhead or the broken pipes and that oil spilled from the explosion and sinking was being contained. The following day, April 24, Landry announced that a damaged wellhead was indeed leaking oil into the Gulf and described it as “a very serious spill”. BP has not given a cause for the explosion. According to the US Congressional investigation the rig’s blowout preventer, a fail-safe device fitted at the base of the well, built by Cameron International Corporation, had a hydraulic leak and a failed battery, and therefore failed.

Investigations

On April 22 the United States Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service launched an investigation of the possible causes of the explosion. On May 11 the Obama administration requested the National Academy of Engineering conduct an independent technical investigation to determine the root causes of the disaster so that corrective steps could be taken to address the mechanical failures underlying the accident. On May 22 President Obama announced that he had issued Executive Order 13543 establishing the bipartisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, with former Florida Governor and Senator Bob Graham and former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly serving as co-chairs. The purpose of the commission is to “consider the root causes of the disaster and offer options on safety and environmental precautions.” On June 1 U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he has opened an investigation of the oil spill. According to Holder, the Justice Department is interviewing witnesses as part of a criminal and civil investigation. Besides BP, the investigation could apply to other companies involved in the drilling of the damaged well.

The United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce has conducted a number of hearings. On June 17, CEO of BP Tony Hayward testified before the Committee. The heads of Anadarko and Mitsui’s exploration unit will testify before the Committee July 22. On April 30, the Committee asked Halliburton to brief it as well as provide any documents it might have related to its work on the Macondo well. Attention has focused on the cementing procedure and the blowout preventer, which failed to fully engage. A number of significant problems have been identified with the blowout preventer: There was a leak in the hydraulic system that provides power to the shear rams. The underwater control panel had been disconnected from the pipe ram, and instead connected to a test ram. The blowout preventer schematic drawings, provided by Transocean to BP, do not correspond to the structure that is on the ocean bottom. The shear rams are not designed to function on the joints where the drill pipes are screwed together or on tools that are passed through the blowout preventer during well construction. The explosion may have severed the communication line between the rig and the sub-surface blowout preventer control unit such that the blowout preventer would have never received the instruction to engage. Before the backup dead man’s switch could engage, communications, power and hydraulic lines must all be severed, but it is possible hydraulic lines were intact after the explosion. Of the two control pods for the deadman switch, the one that has been inspected so far had a dead battery. Employee Tyrone Benton told the BBC on June 21 that a leak was spotted on a crucial piece of equipment in the oil rig’s blowout preventer weeks before the accident, and that Transocean and BP were emailed about it.

According to the testimony of Doug Brown, the chief mechanic on the Deepwater Horizon, on May 26 at the joint U.S. Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service hearing, a BP representative overruled Transocean employees and insisted on displacing protective drilling mud with seawater just hours before the explosion. One of the BP representatives on the board responsible for making the final decision, Robert Kaluza, refused to testify on the Fifth Amendment grounds that he might incriminate himself; Donald Vidrine, another BP representative, cited medical reasons for his inability to testify, as did James Mansfield, Transocean’s assistant marine engineer on board.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is investigating the incident. In a statement made in June they noted that in a number of cases leading up to the explosion, BP appears to have chosen riskier procedures to save time or money, sometimes against the advice of its staff or contractors.

In a June 18 statement, Jim Hackett, the CEO of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, said research “indicates BP operated unsafely and failed to monitor and react to several critical warning signs during the drilling. … BP’s behavior and actions likely represent gross negligence or willful misconduct.” BP responded by strongly disagreeing with the Anadarko statement and said that, despite being contractually liable for sharing clean-up costs, Anadarko is “refusing to accept responsibility for oil spill removal costs and damages”. BP has sent Anadarko a bill for $272.2 million; Anadarko is “assessing our contractual remedies”.

Other Information

• Location : Gulf of Mexico near Mississippi River Delta
• Date : April 20, 2010 – present
• Cause : Wellhead blowout
• Casualties : 13 dead 11 killed on Deepwater Horizon, 2 additional oil-related deaths, 17 injured
• Operator : Transocean under contract for BP
• Volume : up to 100,000 barrels (4,200,000 US gallons; 16,000 cubic meters) per day; up to four million barrels (170 million gallons) total (as of July 26, 2010) As much as 180m gallons (4.28million barrels)
• Area  : 2,500 to 68,000 sq mi (6,500 to 180,000 km²)

World’s Largest Oil Spills

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Continue reading »]]> Taiwan leaders, already under fire over the response to a typhoon that likely killed hundreds, have accepted foreign aid after earlier refusing the offers, officials said on Saturday, as the president apologized.

Trying to repair its image after Typhoon Morakot caused widespread landslides in southern Taiwan, the government on Friday asked major world donors for equipment, a foreign ministry official said. Aid offers were initially refused on Tuesday.

“In our first message, we said we didn’t need help, just money,” said Joanne Ou, head of the ministry’s publicity section. “But on (Thursday) the ministry asked the disaster center what we needed. We asked them for a list.”

Local media, reflecting public sentiment, bashed the government for declining aid earlier in the week.

The ministry has approached Japan, the United States and European countries for supplies such as large helicopters and mobile homes, Ou said.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, pressured by the public over his response to the typhoon damage, on Friday estimated the eventual death toll at more than 500, mostly people feared buried in a massive landslide in one mountain village.

COULD DRAIN SUPPORT

Survivors and Taiwan’s main opposition party have accused Ma of responding too slowly to the typhoon that hit last weekend, the island’s worst since 1959. The official death toll is 123.

Ma, touring a disaster area in central Taiwan, apologized on Saturday.

“Ma said the government response was a bit slow and expressed apologies for that,” his spokesman Tony Wang said.

Sustained pressure on Ma, who was elected in 2008, could drain support for his Nationalist Party (KMT) in city and county elections in December, analysts say.

The foreign aid snafu pointed to poor communication between government offices and may be remembered, said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taipei.

Taiwan seeks foreign aid after typhoon catastrophe

Continue reading »]]> PORT MORESEBY – Three bodies have been recovered and 16 people are missing, feared dead, after a massive landslide wiped out a remote Papua New Guinea village.

Villagers had to walk three hours to alert authorities in Morobe Province, on PNG’s northwest coast, after days of continual heavy rains caused the landslide early on Monday.

Authorities and local media reported on Wednesday at least five Firangka village houses were wiped out in the Sialum District when the face of an overlooking mountain slid for more than 500m, carving up 200m at its widest.

PNG’s National newspaper reported a village headcount showed 19 people, including women and children, were missing.

“It came so suddenly there was nothing we could do,” said villager Bobby Toby, a retired teacher.

“There were no warning signs, no earthquakes, it just happened,” he said.

Deputy Provincial administrator Patilias Gamato and other local officials visited the remote site by helicopter on Tuesday.

Gamato said PNG’s National Disaster and Emergency Office would see relief supplies reach the area by Thursday.

“Morobe province has a record of disasters that occur during the wet period and everyone, especially remote areas, should be cautious,” he said.

The bodies of a woman and two men were recovered on Monday, while villagers remain optimistic survivors will be found.

Australian relief and aid services based in PNG’s capital Port Moresby are gathering information and assessing the situation.

The village is located in the Zongefifi area about 90km northeast of Lae, PNG’s second largest city, and sits on the fringes of the rugged Sarawaget Range.

16 missing after PNG landslide

Continue reading »]]> Firefighters wary of unpredictable “sundowner” winds fought on Thursday to keep a wildfire that destroyed dozens of multimillion-dollar homes from burning through the city of Santa Barbara.

Although there were no further reports on Thursday of houses lost in the foothills above Santa Barbara, crews were on alert because the hot, dry winds notoriously pick up speed at sunset. Officials said about 3,500 homes remained threatened.

Some 15,000 people have been driven from their homes by the so-called Jesusita fire. It has also injured 10 firefighters and blackened at least 1,300 acres surrounding the picturesque seaside community since it ignited on Tuesday.

Calmer winds late Thursday afternoon gave firefighters the chance to make headway against the blaze, which was edging toward the more populated downtown area.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has spent recent days promoting wildfire safety throughout the state, visited the site of the first major fire of the year and said dozens of homes have been destroyed.

STUDENTS TRAPPED IN BACK-COUNTRY

“I didn’t want to lose my home. It’s that simple,” homeowner Albert Lindemann told KTLA-TV news, adding that his house ultimately was saved by firefighters who arrived just in time.

“I thought we were going to die,” he said. “Until I started seeing those firemen coming in there, I didn’t think any human being could be out there.”

The Los Angeles Times reported that search and rescue teams saved a group of middle-school students who had been camping in the backcountry and found themselves cut off by the fire.

Authorities said rugged terrain, thick brush and gale-force winds made it difficult to control the blaze. Winds died down overnight, allowing an aerial assault by water-dropping helicopters to continue round-the-clock.

Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for Santa Barbara County on Wednesday, a move that frees up additional funds and equipment. The firefighting force also was beefed up overnight, growing from more than 900 personnel to about 1,400, with additional helicopters and airplanes joining the battle.

Three firefighters whose engine was overrun by flames on Wednesday while they struggled to save a home were reported to be in serious condition at a Los Angeles burn center but were expected to recover.

In southern Arizona, fire teams said they were working to contain a blaze that torched three homes and burned 4,000 acres of mountainous grass and woodlands southeast of Tucson in recent days.

“The fire is not advancing,” Jonetta Holt, a spokeswoman for the incident management team said of the blaze near the city of Sierra Vista. “We have a line around it and we are working to secure it.”

In November, more than 200 homes were destroyed in Santa Barbara and the surrounding communities in a brush fire that was blamed on a bonfire started by local students.

Videos

• Jesucita Fire in Santa Barbara
• California WildFire May 2009

California wildfire unchecked as night falls

Continue reading »]]> Along the banks of this city, the Red River surpassed its highest level in history Friday morning, forcing the emergency evacuation of one neighborhood before dawn and leading city leaders here, once cheerfully upbeat, to sound far more dire.

“We do not want to give up yet,” Mayor Dennis Walaker of Fargo said late Thursday night after receiving yet another piece of gruesome news. Forecasters now believe the Red River will go right on rising, and by Saturday overtake the record set here more than a century ago by two feet or even more, much higher than anyone here had earlier believed possible.

“We want to go down swinging — if we go down,” the mayor said, as he urged his city to summon the energy to build the dikes that protect it yet another foot higher by Friday night.

“I’m going to be devastated if we lose,” said Mr. Walaker, who had, only a few days ago, expressed optimism, even certainty, that Fargo, a city of 90,000 and North Dakota’s most populous, would be fine.

By Friday morning, some hospitals here had transferred patients to other facilities miles away, and nursing homes had sent residents to relatives’ homes on high ground. Major roads here were closed, to allow trucks carrying more loads of sandbags to reach levees as fast as possible. And after about 100 people, including some residents of a nursing home, in one Fargo neighborhood and a large swath of neighboring Moorhead, Minn., were forced to evacuate Thursday night, officials on Friday ordered residents from about 150 more Fargo homes to leave just after 2 a.m. The authorities said they found a leak in a levee near those homes, and were racing to repair it. Residents, meanwhile, could be seen trudging out by foot, bearing belongings in bone-cold temperatures, local news reports said.

While flooding conditions have threatened much of North Dakota and parts of western Minnesota, and some rural communities are already under water, all eyes on Friday were on this city and on Moorhead, a city of 34,700 just across the Red River. More than a thousand members of the National Guard had been called in to add more sand to the area’s already enormous dikes, but even weather forecasters seemed at a loss to be sure what might come next.

“This is definitely ground zero right now,” said Patrick Slattery, a spokesman for the National Weather Service. “Once you get here, into predictions above the levels we have ever seen before, you’re taking about unbroken ground. Even we don’t know for certain what’s going to happen.”

People here found themselves facing added challenges given the singular dimensions of this flood. Once the river crests on Saturday, it is expected to stay at those swelled, highest levels for several days. Dikes that hold for a few hours may be in trouble in a matter of days, the authorities here say.

The temperature here, too — 10 degrees on Friday morning with a wind chill reported at 4 degree below zero — tested the stamina of thousands of volunteers. It also led some to worry about the condition of the piles sandbags. Would sandbags slide and give way on frozen ground? Would frigid sandbags allow water to flow through rather than holding it back?

In Fargo, a city where residents continued to offer applause at public meetings for their political leaders even as the news grew worse and worse this week, tempers were clearly tested by late Thursday. Kristy Fremstad, who owns rental property in Fargo, pleaded with city officials to add sandbags to the dike near her land.

“We’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting,” she tearfully told city commissioners at an emergency meeting, (also attended by Gov. John Hoeven, Senator Byron L. Dorgan and Representative Earl Pomeroy). “I need some help.”

Schools and businesses were closed. And some people in between the city’s primary dike system and a second set of newly created emergency dikes were advised to evacuate. Volunteers, now days into their work, went right on filling sandbags at the Fargodome all through the night.

Across the bulging river, in Moorhead, residents who had been advised to evacuate found themselves on roads jammed with other cars, (and, in some cases, still covered in snow). The congested streets led some here, including Mayor Walaker, to worry about how a broader evacuation plan, if one were required, would play out here.

Adding to the complications of such a concept, local officials acknowledged, was the fact that no one could be sure where the dikes might break or what roads — given rising waters and falling snow — might be passable.

In some rural areas to the south of Fargo and elsewhere, water had already filled homes. White caps, one law enforcement officer said, could be seen around what had once been farm fields. Rescues were made with boats and helicopters, even as other residents, surrounded on all sides by water, insisted on staying put.

Around Bismarck, the state capital, flooded neighborhoods sat empty as demolition crews battled dangerous ice jams on the Missouri with explosives. Water levels had dropped some there, offering hope.

“Our biggest concern is an ice jam in the river just 10 miles north of Bismarck, which we’re hoping does not dislodge,” said Bill Wocken, that city’s administrator. “An ice jam is kind of like my teenage daughter. Sometimes there is just no way to predict what they’ll do next.”

In Grand Forks, which was devastated by flooding in 1997, two of the three bridges leading in and out of town were already closed. But city officials seemed hopeful that a $409 million Army Corps of Engineers flood protection project, completed two years ago, would save the city from the Red River this time.

“We remain cautious, vigilant and watchful,” said Kevin Dean, a city spokesman.

Fargo Neighborhood Evacuated as Waters Rise

Continue reading »]]> The search for 16 oil workers missing after their helicopter crashed into the Atlantic off Newfoundland has now been called off.

Officials say it is unlikely the missing workers could have survived.

Rescue officials say the mission is now one of recovery.

A spokesman says the search ended after 34 hours, adding that it has gone beyond the 24-hour life expectancy time for someone in a survival suit.

One body was recovered and one man was rescued. He is listed in critical but stable condition in hospital.

The case now goes to the Transportation Safety Board.

The lead investigator says plans are already underway to lift the helicopter to the surface some time next week.

It is about 120 metres down and a remote submersible equipped with cameras will be sent to the ocean floor, possibly as soon as today, to examine the wreck.

Canadian chopper crash search called off

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A fire swept through Bangladesh’s largest shopping mall Friday in the capital, Dhaka, killing at least one person and injuring several others.

Authorities were still battling the blaze several hours after it began on top floors of the office tower at the Bashundhara City complex. Helicopters were used to douse the flames from the top floor of the 21-story building.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from the mall. Authorities are trying to determine if people are still trapped inside.

The cause of the fire is not known.

The multi-purpose complex includes more than 2,500 shops, restaurants, cinemas and offices. It is located near Kawran Bazaar, a major commercial hub in the capital.

Fire Sweeps Through Bangladeshi High Rise

Continue reading »]]> Former Washington Huskies coach Rick Neuheisel, now in his second year as UCLA’s head coach, doesn’t remember Marquis Cooper’s hobby: Fishing.

What he remembers is hard-working kid with a loving family.

Today, Neuheisel is wishing his former linebacker had been with his family in Arizona this weekend instead of on board a 21-foot fishing vessel in Tampa Bay. Cooper and two other passengers remain missing this afternoon after Coast Guard found the boat — overturned — with Nick Schuyler clinging to the hull this morning.

Schuyler, a former South Florida player, was conscious and taken to nearby Tampa General.

Coast Guard Capt. Timothy M. Close says Schuyler told rescuers that the boat, owned by Cooper, was anchored when it flipped Saturday evening in rough seas. Schuyler told rescuers the others got separated from the boat and that he had been clinging to it since.

Close is hoping to get more information as the rescue effort has zeroed in on the area where the boat was found — about 30 miles off shore.

Neuheisel said he has been following the story and is “keeping his fingers crossed.”

“I don’t remember him enjoying fishing. I just know he was a great kid with a great family. They’re from Glendale, Ariz. and he was just the kind of kid you loved to recruit because his family was so involved,” Neheisel said.

“He was just a natural fit to be a Husky. He fell in love with Saeattle and the campus. I know the water was an allure, but I didn’t know it was because he was a fisherman. I got my fingers crossed that this is going to have a happy ending. I’m very, very hopeful this has a happy ending.”

Cooper, 26, played for the Huskies from 2000-’03 and was the team’s defensive MVP his senior year. He is most remembered by fans for intercepting Josh Swogger in the last minutes of the 2003 Apple Cup. He returned the interception for a touchdown to clinch the win.

Tampa Bay then selected Cooper in the third round (79th overall) in the 2004 draft.

In addition to the Buccaneers, he has played with the Steelers, Vikings, Seahawks, Jaguars and Oakland, where he is now on the roster.

Cooper’s stay with the Seahawks was a short one — the final three games of the 2006 season. But he is remembered as a hard-working, soft-spoken person who was willing to do whatever was asked of him.

“Marquis was a quiet guy. You had to engage him in conversation,” said Maurice Kelly, also a former Seahawk and now the team’s director of player development.

“But I had a number of pretty good talks with him and he just wanted to be around. He wanted to do whatever it took to be part of this team, and he loved this area.”

The news that Cooper is missing hit Kelly hard.

“When I heard that, it was like, ‘You’ve got to kidding me,’ ” Kelly said. “That’s a tough pill to swallow, now.”

Kelly is trying to monitor the situation by watching updates on TV.

“It just doesn’t look good when you see the boat capsized and one guy clinging to it without the other guys being around,” he said. “We’re all hoping for the best.”

The other men missing are along with free-agent defensive lineman Corey Smith and former South Florida player William Bleakley, remained missing.

Television footage showed Schuyler conscious but weak as he was being taken off a helicopter at Tampa General Hospital and placed on a stretcher. The hospital declined immediate comment.

Schuyler’s mother, Marsha Schuyler, said her son told her that he survived by thinking about how he didn’t want her to go to his funeral.

The family’s joy at him being found alive was tempered by the search for his friends.

“We still have three men missing, and we’re not going to talk too much until we find these guys,” said his father, Stuart Schuyler. “We’re all praying for them. These guys are all very close friends.”

Close said the Coast Guard would search for the men for “quite awhile.”

The four left Clearwater Pass early Saturday in calm weather, but heavy winds picked up through the day and the seas got heavy, with waves of 7 feet and higher, peaking at 15 feet on Sunday. A relative alerted the Coast Guard early Sunday after the men did not return as expected.

Stuart Schuyler said his son was in serious condition but stable.

“He looks OK,” Stuart Schuyler said. “He’s got some cuts and bruises. He’s dehydrated.”

By Monday morning, the Coast Guard had searched about 16,000 square miles of ocean for the Everglades-manufactured boat, which are built with compressed foam encased in Fiberglas, making them difficult to sink.

NFL players’ boat found off the coast of Florida

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Continue reading »]]> A Canadian Coast Guard ship rescued all 22 people from a burning Spanish fishing trawler in the North Atlantic on Sunday, just as the fisherman were leaping into the water.

“It was pretty dramatic when you see a ship sinking and people being launched in a life raft, people jumping off the side,” Coast Guard Capt. Derek LeRiche said by telephone.

Some didn’t have life jackets on, and some jumped into the freezing water wearing regular clothes, he said.

The Coast Guard was in the area on a routine fisheries patrol about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Newfoundland when it received a distress call from the Monte Galineiro trawler.

It was not immediately clear what caused the fire.

LeRiche said they arrived about 10 minutes later, just as the Spanish fishermen were jumping into the water or sliding into life rafts.

“We managed to pick them up quite fast, and most didn’t have ill effects of the water temperature,” he said.

One crewman had hypothermia and was treated on board. Another suffering from smoke inhalation was evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

It was lucky that the Coast Guard ship had been nearby, LeRiche said.

“We were thinking of doing a boarding on her anyway” with some fisheries inspectors, he said. “All the cards were in line that we were so close.”

Canadian Coast Guard Rescues 22 From Flaming Ship

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Continue reading »]]> A U.S. Border Patrol helicopter went down Thursday night near the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, the FAA said.

The McDonnell Douglas 600N, with three people on board, made a forced landing because of engine trouble.

The three people were able to exit the helicopter on their own and were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Aerial images showed the chopper sitting on the edge of the surf, just north of the nuclear plant. The aircraft was significantly damaged, authorities said.

The helicopter was going from the airport in Long Beach, California, to the Brown Field airport in San Diego, said Vince Bond, the Border Patrol’s public information officer.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the case.

Helicopter goes down near California nuclear plant