Friday's Wall St Journal described the chaos and lack of organization aboard Deepwater Horizon when the well blew. A young technician radioed "Mayday, Mayday, We have an uncontrollable fire aboard." The rig skipper reprimanded her for exceeding her authority. To which the technician replied "Sorry Sir." The blowout preventer could not be closed until a committee of the top BP and Transocean executives met and gave the OK. Several workers mentioned a lack of firefighting equipment, pumps, sprinklers, hoses. The explosion put electrical power out.
The sinking of the platform made well control enourmously more difficult. There should have been plenty of fire fighting equipment. There also should be been a watch officer on duty 24/7 with the authority to close the blow out preventer, call the crew to fight fighting stations, maneuver the platform, order abandon ship, and what ever else is needful. No way a committee, woken sudden from sleep, confronted with fire and explosion, can make any kind of decisions, let alone the right decisions until it's much too late.
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