About 10:30 a.m. on July 23, 1985, in a rural area about 8 miles south of Kaycee, Wyoming, a girth weld cracked during a pipeline recoating project on a 23-year-old, 8-inch-diameter pipeline owned by the Continental Pipe Line Company. The cracked girth weld allowed the release, atomization, and ignition of aircraft turbine fuel under 430 pounds pressure, killing one person, burning six persons, destroying construction equipment, and shutting down the pipeline. Damage was estimated at more than $128,000. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the rupture was the failure by Continental Pipe Line Company to identify the substandard girth weld when the pipeline was constructed in 1963 and again when the girth weld was exposed during the recoating project in 1985. Contributing to the accident was the failure by the company to develop written instructions or guidelines for recoating projects and to select and train its inspectors and contract employees specifically concerning the inherent hazardous condition involved in raising and recoating operating pipelines under pressure.
Pipeline Accident Report - Continental Pipe Line Company, Pipeline Rupture and Fire Kaycee, Wyoming, July 23, 1985
1986
36 pages
Report
No indication
English