$500K device may have prevented oil spill

Orlando Independent Examiner ^ | May 2, 2010 | Gregory Patin

[mtnwmn]

Yes, that's correct...a device that costs one half million dollars may have prevented what is on track to become the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

The device is called an acoustic trigger (aka. acoustic switch, actuator). It is a remote-controlled device deployed off oil rigs that sends acoustic impulses through the water, triggering an underwater valve or explosives to shut down the well even if the rig is catastrophically damaged or abandoned.

All offshore rigs have one main switch to shut off the flow of oil by closing a valve located on the ocean floor. There is also supposed to be a backup called a “dead man,” that will shut down the well in the event of a catastrophe on the rig.

Apparently neither of these devices worked on the Deepwater Horizon rig operated by British Petroleum (BP). The crew members who would have been closest to the shutoff switch are among those missing and presumed dead. If the rig was equipped with an acoustic trigger, it would have been a last resort option and could have been activated from a remote location.

[SouthTexas]

The BOP failed, not the signal. Another signal would have done no good.

[TXnMA]

That ignorant "writer", Gregory Patin , (like many many others) needs to learn the divverence between "may have" and "might have".

Translation of the headline as written:"$500K device possibly deserves credit for preventing oil spill."

Stupid, ignorant "journalist"!