Sport Fishing Television host and SWS_ editor-in-chief John Brownlee was near the scene at Friday’s Gulf oil rig explosion. His report and a video clip are below…_
On the morning of November 16 our film crew and I were filming an episode of our television show,_ Sport Fishing Television_ powered by RAM in Venice Louisiana. We were fishing for redfish along the beach between Venice and Empire, Louisiana and we had our cameras pointing toward Capt. Scott Sullivan, our guide. The cameras were pointing south and suddenly we all saw a huge fireball erupt on the horizon. We trained the camera more closely on the fireball which soon went away, and a large plume of smoke rose into the sky. We immediately turned on the VHF radio and soon heard the distress call from an oil platform 20 miles offshore. This was the explosion which made the news later that day, West Delta 130 Echo. We strained like everyone else to get information, which came slowly and soon heard the sad news that there were injuries and possibly deaths.
Here is a second clip from WLOX news of an interview with Brownlee soon after the explosion..
