Deepwater Horizon Blowout Animation

[squidgrill]

So basically every single safety feature that is designed to stop a explosion/failure failed. Wow.

[allenmoore]

Can't believe that a device that was so important to safety can be wired incorrectly and not tested before being installed.

[proaudiohd]

I have learned one major lesson in my own line of work: If you haven't tested it, it doesn't work yet!

[jaredandkyleigh]

I worked this case and remember it well. The video leaves out a lot of crucial decisions by company men that proved catastrophic. Such as a change to a cheaper, faster setting slurry that wasn't approved for that depth, cutting back centralizers to cut costs (they used less than a third they should have iirc), doing maintenance onboard and skipping many items instead of on-shore refurb they were due for, changing rig vent lines, and converting the bottom ram to a test ram so they could inversely test the pipe pressure without interrupting drilling. It was multi system failure from the top to bottom--much of it caused by greed and negligence. Cement was seen in the mud return (meaning it had not set) and the order was to keep drilling.

[zachj]

The narrators voice is so perfect for these videos

[ryangeddes]

How many catastrophic disasters could have been prevented by someone with a multimeter in a factory?

[slythewhyissilent]

How two solenoids could be mis-wired on such critical systems is beyond me. Was there no test of the equipment? No inspection of the wiring scheme? Redundancy is soo important because human error is inherently a part of anything we build.

[joshmoore]

I was there on a oil spill recovery vessel after the fact. I worked nonstop for 7 months. After we were released from recovery, we had berthed at Fort Jackson, and were awaiting our turn in the clean up of the vessel, I went outside to smoke a cig at midnight. I couldn't believe what I saw coming around the corner! Many blue flashing lights from six Coast Guard vessels escorting a tug and tow. Chained down to a barge, was that BOP. An incredible sight! Obviously important people wanted to get a first hand look at that thing.

[Elec-DIY]

7:13 Interesting and ironic how two failures canceled out but then rendered useless by a third failure **facepalm**

[jimbass]

I worked oilfield from 1978 through 1981 as a safety and training officer for Dowell Well Servicing. It amazed me how much money the company spent on safety and accident prevention and yet, still operated some of the most obsolete equipment I ever saw. New technology was coming out constantly. And still people were getting hurt in the most stupid ways. In the DWH disaster, those BOP and emergency rams cost the company tens of millions of dollar, not only to buy but to install. The engineering behind them is state of the art and yet, dumb asses wired them wrong rendering them as useful as a slab of pig iron. This kind of stuff goes on all the time in engineering and application of technology. I could not tell you how many times i caught people taking extremely dangerous shortcuts, short circuiting all safety procedures and mechanisms- in the name of saving time or money. Every accident investigation results in the same conclusion; invariably it comes down to people just being stupid.

[DChrls]

And the US government has an agency, at the time called MMS, that is suppose to make sure all safety systems are operational BEFORE drilling begins. Odd how the media never mentioned this, as far as I'm aware.

[BudFox]

I was an offshore platform operator. I'm sure there was a lot more that got skipped or corners cut, but that was a pretty good and to the point explanation. I can think of a bunch of questions use of centralizers, the weight of the mud, BOP testing documentation, and many others, but this seems to cover much it it. Catastrophic accidents are usually a series of oversights and mistakes that manifests as one massive event. Before I left the oilfield I saw a lot of cost cutting chasing pennies that ended up costing tens of thousands.

[nitetrane]

What's truly amazing to me is the fact that all of these underwater drilling experts with 20/20 hindsight were available, right here on YouTube, for free, and not one was consulted.

[SuperDriver]

They forgot to mention in the credits that 11 men lost their lives here.

Jason C. Anderson, age 35
Aaron Dale Burkeen, 37
Donald Clark, 49
Stephen Ray Curtis, 39
Gordon L. Jones, 28
Roy Wyatt Kemp, 27
Karl D. Kleppinger, Jr., 38
Keith Blair Manuel, 56
Dewey A. Revette, 48
Shane M. Roshto, 22
Adam Weise, 24

Deceased
April 20, 2010
Do not forget them.

[bobsimpson]

The entire thrust of the video seems directed towards equipment failures. I am surprised there is not a single reference regarding why the kick occurred and the failure to detect it. Monitoring the well is the primary method of control and early detection is hugely important. It seems likely to me that there is an untold story here.

[philliph]

I saw a Kick and Blowout in a geothermal rig 20 yrs ago.
All the mud was pushed up and out of the hole like a wet sand blaster.
My Cousin was on the Crows nest during this and as the mud began to turn to Steam.
I was on a hill above the rig looking down on it.
The Rig Boss was able to shut the well off manually but only just in time before my cousin was cooked.
The whole rig was gray with mud and Flash said the mud was come up so fast that he could not have put his hand outside the crows nest.

[michaelbuckers]

What kind of idiot designs a dead man's switch that needs power to activate? The gates should be kept open by power and automatically close when power is lost, like truck air brakes.

[Chicaneinokc]

So, the most important pieces of safety equipment on a billion dollar rig... were wired by individuals who can't read a simple 12 wire DC schematic?

Do they not test these assemblies before deploying them 5000ft beneath the sea?

87 days of oil leakage. The company responsible for this installation should be banned from ever touching a rig again. Companies that install residential swimming pool pumps have better quality control than this.

[joshuapatrick]

I am from Lafayette Louisiana, which is 40ish miles away from the coast. as crazy as it sounds you could smell the difference after this event occurred when the wind was blowing from the gulf.

[VSplashMan]

"Bro it's my first day on the job, which way do these wires go?", "Dude, it's a wire just put em which ever way, we gotta go to lunch..." 3 months later: "Yo man, remember that job we did on that regulator piece, well my bad, it turns out the the way the wires go does matter", "Oh dam did something happen?", "You could say that".