The former chief electronics tech at Deepwater Horizon dropped a bombshell in testimony today--the main gas alarm had been deliberately disabled.
The worker, Mike Williams, chief electronics technician aboard the Transocean rig, said the general safety alarm was habitually set to "inhibited" to avoid waking up the crew with late-night sirens.
"They did not want people woke up at 3 a.m. from false alarms," Mr. Williams told the federal panel of investigators in this New Orleans suburb. Consequently, the alarm did not sound during the emergency, leaving workers to relay information through the loudspeaker system.
Williams also said that for at least five years, a system for removing dangerous gas from the drilling shack had been in bypass mode--and apparently Transocean's entire fleet ran similar systems in bypass.
If I'm the official who ordered those alarms disabled, I'd have a lawyer on speed dial.
continued at Daily Kos...
