713 Mexico oil workers evacuate collapsing platform

Posted: 13 April 2011 1519 hrs

MEXICO CITY: A total of 713 oil platform workers were evacuated Tuesday when a semi-submersible residence began to collapse into the Gulf of Mexico, said state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex).

No oil was leaked in the incident and no injuries reported at the Flotel Jupiter platform which housed workers about 80 kilometers (50 miles) off the coast of Campeche state in the Gulf of Mexico.

Initially 638 workers were evacuated earlier Tuesday after water entered part of the facility and it began to lean to one side, but Pemex said by the afternoon all 713 workers on board the platform had been evacuated.

After several attempts to rescue the facility, the platform late Tuesday "turned over and partially sank," said Pemex.

-AFP/ac

MORE AT THE LINK:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1122523/1/.html

***NOTE: How come we have not heard about this in the mainstream media? This is not important?