| By Miguel Llanos, NBC News Two people were missing and four people were airlifted to a hospital Friday after an oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico some 17 miles southeast of Grand Isle, La., the U.S. Coast Guard told NBC News. Rescue crews were searching the waters for the two. Officials did not immediately release the names of missing or the injured. Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts told WWL-TV that the rig is a shallow water platform near West Cote Blanche Bay. It was not known if the fire had caused a spill. The Coast Guard activated a command center to investigate. The platform is a production platform, unlike the Macondo exploratory well in mile-deep water that blew out in 2010. That disaster led to an explosion that killed 11 workers and caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The owner of the platform is Black Elk Energy. On its website, the company stated that this month it was starting to drill the first of 23 new wells in the Gulf of Mexico. The Associated Press contributed to this report. More content from NBCNews.com:
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11/16/2012
Oil rig explodes in Gulf; 2 missing, 4 medevaced
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