WASHINGTON (March 11, 2021) — The National Transportation Safety Board opened the public docket Thursday as part of its ongoing investigation of the fatal, Aug. 1, 2019, natural gas transmission pipeline rupture and fire near Danville, Kentucky.
The docket for this investigation includes more than 3,600 pages of factual information, including reports on pipeline operations, integrity management, metallurgical testing, and emergency response efforts. The docket also includes interview transcripts, photographs, employee training records, and other investigative materials.
The docket contains only factual information collected by NTSB investigators; it does not provide the final report, nor does it contain analysis, findings, recommendations, or probable cause determinations. As such, no conclusions about how or why the rupture occurred should be drawn from the information within the docket. Analysis, findings, recommendations, and probable cause determinations related to the rupture will be issued by the NTSB in a final report at a later date.
A 30-inch pipeline owned and operated by Enbridge Inc., ruptured and released natural gas that ignited. One person was fatally injured in the accident that destroyed five residences, damaged 14 other residences, and burned about 30 acres of land, including railroad tracks.
(This photo illustration shows the post-rupture aerial view of the accident area, the location of pipelines across the northwest, rupture of central pipeline, ejected pipe to the south, destroyed, and damaged residences to the southeast. Google Earth image, NTSB graphic overlay by Mike Hiller)
The public docket for this investigation is available online at https://go.usa.gov/xsdWs.
Additional material may be added to the docket as it becomes available.
To report an incident/accident or if you are a public safety agency, please call 1-844-373-9922 or 202-314-6290 to speak to a Watch Officer at the NTSB Response Operations Center (ROC) in Washington, DC (24/7).
