In a sensational revelation, Chief technician at Transocean Mike Williams has disclosed that alarms and safety mechanism on the ruptured oil well in Gulf of Mexico was switch off in a bid to help workers sleep. He disclosed that several crucial warning systems the Deepwater Horizon oil rig were switched off at the time of explosion in an attempt to spare workers from getting awake due to false alarms. Williams made the revelations in his testimony in a hearing conducted by the federal panel in New Orleans. Williams was in charge of maintaining the rig's electronic systems. The panel is looking into the factors behind the explosion on April 20, which killed as many as 11 people.
Williams told the panel that the alarms had been “inhibited” and that’s why no alarms went off on the day of disaster. Sensors monitoring conditions on the rig and in the Macondo oil well beneath were active but the computers had been instructed not raise alarm even in case of adverse reports. Had computers were instructed, both visual and sound alarms would have gone off, concedes Williams. The revelations have now shifted blame from BP to the subcontractor which took the decisions. Of the 126 crew on board the rig on 20 April, seven worked for BP and 79 for Transocean, the subcontractor, it’s learnt.
Williams further revealed that a crucial safety device, designed to shut down the drill shack in the case of dangerous gas levels being detected, had been switch off, or bypassed in technical terms. Soon after he discovered this, Williams took the matter with a Transocean supervisor, Mark Hay, who eventually rejected concerns. Hay responded: "Damn thing been in bypass for five years. Matter of fact, the entire [Transocean] fleet runs them in bypass."
