Hearings: Questions raised about oil rig captain's actions after explosion

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: The Times-Picayune

A statement to Coast Guard rescuers shortly after the Deepwater Horizon blew up contains explosive allegations about the way the rig's captain handled the emergency.

Stephen Bertone, the rig's chief engineer, stated 26 hours after the accident that killed 11 crew members that Capt. Curt Kuchta yelled at one employee for pushing a distress button and ordered another to leave behind an injured man on a gurney, according to recitation of the previously sealed statement by BP lawyer Richard Godfrey.

Bertone indicated in other testimony Monday that a man on the gurney was lifted into a life raft and brought to safety.

Godfrey put the pressure on Bertone to explain his initial incident statement, even though Bertone's lawyer advised him not to comment on it. That set off a long dispute over whether the witness would answer or if he has to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/hearings_questions_raised_abou.html

[Dogmudgeon]

1. And so, "Blame The Little Guys" begins

I'm sure they will conclude that a 19-year-old rig hand who died in the explosion is the one at fault.

Never fails.

--d!

[dencol]

When you're at that level...

Overseeing the safe operations of a rig/ship, it is your duty to resign if BP or any other company is setting unsafe policies, or forcing unsafe operations. Of course that is difficult, but I have put my job on the line, and have refused to accept positions out of safety and legal compliance concerns. If the captain allowed violations to occur, it is actually his fault. That doesn't mean we shouldn't go after the corporations pulling the strings, though.

[Joe Chi Minh]

7. Spot on. Culpability can range high and wide, though increasing with the increasing level

of responsibility, of course.

I read this before. If true - and why would the witness spin a yarn? - it is way beyond shameful. Wicked, certainly.

[dencol]

3. dupe

nt

[Angry Dragon]

2. We always knew that the small people were at fault

because they are the only ones that could cause something like this.

Hayward admitted in hearings that he did not know what was going on so it had to be someone at the bottom
that was at fault.

If this turns out the way I think it will, I will lose all respect for this government and the people that are in charge.

[truedelphi]

4. Glad to be K & R number six.

And ditto to all the previous comments.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. Hearings: Fewer cement-seal devices used than were available

This is an update from the joint hearings by the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement investigating the causes of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion on April 20.

After BP and Halliburton officials argued about the use of key pieces of oil well safety equipment called centralizers, it turns out additional centralizers were ready on the Deepwater Horizon rig but simply weren't installed.

Centralizers are devices that are supposed to keep tubes in place in an oil well so cement seals can set evenly on either side. E-mails released in June by a congressional committee showed that Halliburton recommended using more than 20 centralizers to make sure the cement seal was good, but BP officials settled on just six of the devices to save time and money.

But in front of a Marine Board investigative panel Monday, the contract worker in charge of installing well casing and other tools testified that he only installed "four or five" centralizers and additional ones were delivered and never used.

"They did order some more and talked about getting them out there," said Lance John, a rig system specialist for contractor Weatherford. "Additional centralizers were delivered, but there were four or five run in the hole."

Asked if the other centralizers were made available to the rig but simply weren't used, John said, "Yes."

Read more: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/hearings_fewer_oil_rig_cement.html

[Rex]

6. That should be company SOPs...want a pension? Will you die for

the good of the Company!? :sarcasm:

What a freakin joke; corporatism will bring about the end of our society. It is just a matter of time (and we joke about mining astroids...ooops pressed the button too late prepare for impact).

I still say regulated capitalism works...too bad we gave up that system.

THANKS GEORGE AND DICK! :finger:


"Shut your mouth I need all these gold coins for my heart...which I keep locked in a vault in the Pentagon."