This is an interesting and detailed animation of the sequence of events that eventually led to the failure of the Blow-Out Preventer (BOP) and subsequent flow of crude into the Gulf... They include pictures of the actual failed components which provided the clues to piece together what happened. The BOP is a 6-story tall, 300 ton assembly designed to handle pressures up to 15,000 psi. It has redundant computer systems which did trigger and attempted to seal off the well pipe after losing comms with the surface drilling platform. http://www.deepwater.com/fw/main/Blow-Out-Preventer-(BOP)-1079.html -Mark N. Iverson
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