The Deepwater Horizon disaster

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2020

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On 20th April 2010, a deadly explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico left 11 people dead. As the rig sank, the riser pipe connecting the platform to the oil well ruptured and began spewing vast amounts of crude oil into the sea. The broken pipe lay near the sea bed, 5000ft down. The well's operators, BP, tried and failed to stem the flow of oil. Soon a huge oil slick had developed threatening the ecosystem in the Gulf. After 87 days the well was finally capped. But by then more than 130 million gallons of oil had entered the marine environment. It was one of the worst environmental disasters in US history. Alex Last spoke to Dr Lisa Dipinto a Chief Scientist from the Office of Response and Restoration at NOAA, who worked on the impact of the spill.

Photo: The offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon burning off the coast of Louisiana 21 April 2010 (U.S. Coast Guard/Reuters)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:40.0	Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Alex Last.
0:46.0	And today we go back to 2010, the story of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill,
0:52.0	one of the biggest ecological disasters to hit the United States.
0:57.0	11 people are missing after an explosion and fire at an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
1:07.0	17 others were injured in the blast.
1:08.8	Authorities say the rig is still alight.
1:11.3	At night on the 20th of April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, disaster struck a floating
1:17.5	oil drilling platform called Deepwater Horizon.
1:21.8	It had been drilling a well known as Macondo for the oil giant BP deep offshore
1:26.8	when suddenly there was a blowout. explosive methane gas surged up from the oil well and erupted engulfing the drilling platform.
1:36.0	And all of a sudden the ricks started making this loud, hissing noise like pressure being released and water started coming falling from the
1:44.4	Derek out the middle of the rig. You can see just a cloud of gas surrounding the
1:48.5	whole rig. Moments later it ignited. When it exploded it was just one big ball of fire.
1:55.0	Just the force of it come towards me, and when it hit me,
1:58.0	it just knocked me all the way back to the cab of the crane.
2:01.0	The rig just started just shaking, you know, it was, I can't even explain the words how that felt.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.