The fire alarm at oil rig Deepwater Horizon was partially disabled before the explosion that the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, one rig worker caused testified Friday. The rig’s chief electronics technician told a federal panel that general alarm system of the Horizon system, which was deliberately set in “inhibited” mode, so that sirens would not wake the sleeping crew in the middle of the night.
“They did not want people to wake up three hours of false alarms,” said Michael Williams, the six-member panel. As a result, the alarm is not activated during the crisis, and workers were forced to turn the alarm sound through the speaker system on board.
But Transocean, the rig of the owner, a statement Friday saying that it is normal for alarms on ships and oil rigs to be “based Zone.”
“It was no safety oversight or done as a matter of convenience,” the company said. “The Deepwater Horizon had hundreds of individual fire and gas alarms, all of which were tested, in good condition, not circumvented and monitoring of the bridge. The general alarm is controlled by one person on the bridge and heard it only when circumstances require. ”
The company added that too many false alarms that may be a security risk. Also highlighted a report by one week before the explosion, which says that the fire detection and suppression systems were in “good condition.”
Williams said the craft’s computer systems were a “wreck” when he started working on the rig in 2009. Defective equipment constantly, computers that were supposed to lock up the gear would show a “blue screen of death control,” and the work was marred by many faulty detectors.
Williams said he tried to repair the systems, but faced problems with equipment, and replacement hardware – ordered before the explosion – was not installed as a disaster.
Williams filed suit against Transocean on April 29. He told the jury that the meeting in New Orleans suburb of Kenner, that his concern about the alarm and other regulatory issues raised, but was chastised and depreciated.
When he Transocean official who is a system that avoids the dangerous gas drilling shack to “bypass mode interrogated,” the man scolded him, he said.
“The thing is already in bypass for five years. Why are you still messing with it?” the official said, according to the testimony of Williams. That supervisor, Mark Hay, told him the whole fleet of rigs running in bypass mode.
20-04 The explosion at the Deepwater Horizon 11 people slain and unleashed one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
Williams, a retired Marine, survived the fire by jumping from the burning platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
source:foxnews
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