A federal investigation has discovered that vital warning systems on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig were switched off during the build up to the explosion, which saw 11 people lose their lives, to ensure workers were not woken up by false alarms!
This horrifying revelation came in a testimony given by Mr Mike Williams, a chief technician working for Transocean, the drilling company who owned the oil rig. It was revealed that alarm systems, along with key safety mechanisms, had been consciously been switched off in order to ensure workers were not disturbed whilst they slept.
Mr Williams, who was in charge of maintaining the rig’s electronic systems, was giving evidence before a joint hearing of the US Coast Guard and the interior department, who are investigating the cause of the disaster, which has been described as the largest environmental disaster in modern history.
The panel heard that no alarms were sounded on the day of the explosion because they had been “inhibited”. Sensors monitoring the conditions on board the rig and in the Macondo oil well beneath it were still operational but the computer had been configured not to trigger any alarms in the case of adverse readings.
If configured correctly the computer would have triggered both visual and audible alarms once the sensors detected fire or dangerous levels of combustible or toxic gas.
This new evidence of deliberate dilution of the oil rig’s safety equipment is highly likely to have serious ramifications for BT and Transocean. The spotlight of blame will now surely shift from BP and towards the subcontractor, the world’s biggest offshore drilling company, which made these disastrous decisions. Of the crew on board 7 worked for BP and 79 for Transocean.
Williams stated that he discovered the physical alarm system was disabled a full year before the Deepwater Horizon was destroyed. On questioning the decision he was told that the view from even the most senior Transocean official on the rig had been that “they did not want people woken up at three o’clock in the morning due to false alarms”!
Mr Mike William’s testimony will raise questions about whether lives could have been saved if the alarms had not been disabled and the alarm raised before the disaster occurred.
It was also revealed that a crucial safety device had been disabled, or bypassed as it was called, designed to shut down the drill shack in the case of dangerous gas levels being detected. When Mr Williams noticed that the system had been bypassed he protested to Transocean supervisor, Mark Hay, who dismissed his concerns. Mr Hay’s response was “Damn thing been in bypass for five years. Matter of fact the entire fleet runs them in bypass”
The third disclosure made by Mr Williams was that a computer system used to monitor the srill shack was constantly freezing, and on once occasion actually produced incorrect information. The system failed to indicate that a vital valve inside the blowout preventer, the device designed to shut down the well in case of problems, had been damaged.
Pressure will now undoubtedly mount on Transocean to explain these discrepancies.
A report by The New York Times last week stated that a survey of workers carried out by Transocean, shortly before the blast, suggested key safety practices were not being followed. Workers said that while they were aware of unsafe practices on the rig they were afraid to report mistakes for fear of reprisals.
“The investigations continue to demonstrate that a range of things went wrong and the responsibility lies with a whole load of different companies” was stated by a BP spokesman.
Meanwhile, workers on the ships at the site of the oil spill are aking final preparations to leave as a storm approaches.
Source - BBC News - The Guardian