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Seven Of Ten Oil Workers Missing In The Gulf Of Mexico Found Alive

USA TODAY reported yesterday that seven of ten oil workers missing in the Gulf of Mexico were found alive Sunday after spending three days at sea in a lifeboat.  Two bodies have also been found and another worker remains missing.

The survivors were four Mexicans, two Americans and one worker from Bangladesh.  The ten men were working on a liftboat which was working in the near coastal waters off the Mexican state of  Campeche in the southern Gulf of Mexico.  A liftboat is a self-propelled, self- elevating vessel commonly used to perform maintenance and repair on oil and gas well production platforms.  A liftboat has legs which can be lowered to the bottom and then can be used to lift the boat out of the water providing a stable work platform. (Photo of liftboat on Wikipedia)  Liftboats usually work in 200 feet of water depth or less.

The ten workers were apparently forced to abandon the liftboat because the liftboat had sprung a leak.  The lifeboat was located 51 miles off the coast apparently having been pushed  by winds and seas generated by tropical storm Nate.

 

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