WSJ: There Was 'Nobody in Charge' (Deepwater Horizon Explosion and Fire )

Associated Press

In this aerial photo taken in the Gulf of Mexico more than 50 miles southeast of Venice on Louisiana's tip, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig burned on April 21.

In the minutes after a cascade of gas explosions crippled the Deepwater Horizon on April 20, confusion reigned on the drilling platform. Flames were spreading rapidly, power was out, and terrified workers were leaping into the dark, oil-coated sea. Capt. Curt Kuchta, the vessel's commander, huddled on the bridge with about 10 other managers and crew members.

Andrea Fleytas, a 23-year-old worker who helped operate the rig's sophisticated navigation machinery, suddenly noticed a glaring oversight: No one had issued a distress signal to the outside world, she recalls in an interview. Ms. Fleytas grabbed the radio and began calling over a signal monitored by the Coast Guard and other vessels.

"Mayday, Mayday. This is Deepwater Horizon. We have an uncontrollable fire."

When Capt. Kuchta realized what she had done, he reprimanded her, she says.

"I didn't give you authority to do that," he said, according to Ms. Fleytas, who says she responded: "I'm sorry."

Part Two of a Journal investigation finds the doomed oil rig was unprepared for disaster, hobbled by a complex chain of command and a balky decision-making structure.

Part One: BP Decisions Set Stage for Disaster

An examination by The Wall Street Journal of what happened aboard the Deepwater Horizon just before and after the explosions suggests the rig was unprepared for the kind of disaster that struck and was overwhelmed when it occurred.

All those government bureaucrats looking over their shoulder, and no one was in charge?

What strikes me about all this is the government’s double talk. On one hand, we’re told that without the government, private enterprise would destroy the Earth. On the other hand, we’re told that government is powerless to fix this, and that BP must do so.

Yet the liberals don’t seem to see the contradiction in that.

When I read the article yesterday, all I could think of was the Titanic. Everyone who should have stopped it, didn’t or wasn’t able. It was a scenario of everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Either by accident or human error. Just one part of the guy who was roused from sleep to hit the emergency shut down was getting dressed to do it when the explosion hit. When you are digging in methane fields, why would you have to get in touch with TWO senior people to use emergency shut down procedures?

BP is really going to take a hit on this. Not just in their errors, but in the procedures as well.

I meant to add too that when I say it reminded me of the Titanic, I was thinking of the Senate investigation that displayed who did what after the sinking.

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BP is really going to take a hit on this. Not just in their errors, but in the procedures as well.

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