"A BP executive testified the captain of the oil rig that exploded and sent millions of barrels of oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico delayed activating the installation’s safety systems after the blast as a trial over the disaster ended."
"Patrick O’Bryan, BP’s former vice president of Gulf drilling operations, told a judge in New Orleans yesterday Transocean Ltd. employee Curt Kuchta, captain of the Deepwater Horizon rig, told crew members not to initiate safety systems without permission from the installation’s top drilling manager.
That meant the safety systems weren’t activated until minutes after the explosion ignited the rig’s drilling floor and knocked out power, said O’Bryan, one of BP’s last witnesses in the case. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, who heard eight weeks of testimony in the non-jury trial, said he would decide fault for the disaster later."
Allen Johnson Jr., Jef Feeley & Laurel Brubaker Calkins report for Bloomberg April 18, 2013.
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