HOUSTON — The night of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, few in the crew knew who was in charge or understood the chain of command, and the drilling rig’s captain hesitated before making critical safety decisions, according to testimony Monday before a federal panel investigating the cause of the Gulf of Mexico disaster that killed 11 crew members.
The lack of a clear leader contributed to the chaos on the ill- fated oil rig April 20 and was the focus of intense questioning from the panel’s lead investigator.
Even a top official of Transocean, which owned the rig and leased it to BP, was unaware of the chain of command.
“Are you clear as to who was in charge?” U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Hung Nguyen asked Paul Johnson, the Transocean rig manager who supervised the Deepwater Horizon’s drilling operation from land.
“I’m not sure,” Johnson said.
His testimony came at the start of the fourth phase of a joint Coast Guard-Interior Department hearing investigating the cause of the explosion.
According to Transocean’s dual-command structure, when the mobile rig is anchored and drilling, an onboard Transocean manager runs the operation. When the rig is on the move and during emergencies, the captain, also a Transocean employee, is in command.
Nguyen, who heads the joint panel, pressed Johnson on the importance of knowing who is in charge during an emergency.
“I never gave it much thought,” Johnson replied. “It never occurred to me to ask.”
“Do you think the transfer of command, if it was not done properly, would that be a contributing cause to the tragedy?” Nguyen asked.
“Do I think a bad handover could cause confusion? . . . Yes, I would,” Johnson said.
Underscoring the confusion, the rig’s captain, Curt Kuchta, turned to someone else to make critical decisions, according to testimony from senior Transocean official Daun Winslow, who said he had to prompt Kuchta to deploy lifeboats.
In the urgency of the moment, crew members were awaiting orders to disconnect the rig from the well, a critical safety maneuver, said Winslow, a Transocean division manager who was on board that night. The effort to disconnect the rig from the out-of- control well failed, contributing to its eventual collapse.
