NTSB: Poor planning led to deadly Texas pipeline blast

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — Federal investigators say a dredge operator’s inadequate communication, planning, and risk management likely led to a propane pipeline blast at a Texas port that killed five people last year. The National Transportation Safety Board reported its findings Tuesday on the August 2020 explosion in the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. The explosion happened after the dredging vessel Waymon L Boyd’s rotating cutter head cut the 16-inch pipeline owned by Enterprise Products. Of 18 crew members employed by dredge owner Orion Marine Group, three aboard the dredge and one aboard an adjacent anchor barge died outright. Six others aboard the dredge were injured, one of whom later died.