BP caps spill

[CRedskinsRule]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

wow

Deepwater Horizon alarms were switched off 'to help workers sleep' | Environment | The Guardian

I am sure I will be accused of defending the evil among us:

He also revealed that a crucial safety device, designed to shut down the drill shack in the case of dangerous gas levels being detected, had been disabled, or bypassed as it is called.

When he saw that the system had been bypassed, Williams protested to a Transocean supervisor, Mark Hay, who dismissed his concerns. Hay responded: "Damn thing been in bypass for five years. Matter of fact, the entire [Transocean] fleet runs them in bypass."

First he sounds like an employee with a major chip on his shoulder. Second, in the case of the above quote at least, it is pretty misleading to call a device "crucial" when that device has been ignored for 5 years and is not used in the entire fleet of drills. Chances are it was a useless alarm, and it was decided that frequent false alarms were as hazardous as the danger the condition the alarm was supposed to warn about.