There was a leaking control pod. Equipment to secure the well wasn’t used. Test results indicating danger were ignored. Routine tests weren’t even run. The alarms were jiggered.
Jarvis DeBerry at Times Pecayune:
If the allegations are true, and rampant rule-breaking by BP led to the fatal and ecologically destructive explosion, it doesn’t necessarily follow that every safety rule that’s needed is already in place. But if reports … are true and BP and Transocean were cutting corners on a well with evident problems, then it’s right to ask if those 11 men wouldn’t still be alive if the companies had played it by the book.
Accidents happen. Weather events are acts of God. But greed and recklessness are vices.
Combine that with a seeming disregard for the lives of the workers and the sanctity of the Gulf, and you get a more fitting explanation.
Adjacent comment:
It is the universal greed that we all share. And by the way, the profit motive built America. Individuals working as hard as they can to make as much as they can to enjoy the good life as well as they can.
And we are all greedy: ‘If there is one place in heaven remaining I want God to give it to me not you. If there are only two, I want it to go to my dog. I am greedy that way.’