Check this out. It’s the clearest picture to date of the two pieces of drill pipes found in the tube that connected the Deepwater Horizon to BP’s wild Macondo well.
Fuzzy images taken by robotic submarines a mile under the sea showed the two pipes before. But the Marine Board panel investigating the massive April 20 accident just put out this crisp image taken after the section of tubing called a riser had been lifted to the dock.
See photo here: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/09/deepwater_horizons_2_drill_pip.html
It’s the clearest sign yet to back up the theory that a second drill pipe was also running into the blowout preventer, the huge system of valves and rams that are designed to close in the well in an emergency, and fouled up the works when the well blew.
Efforts to activate pipe-cutting devices in the blowout preventer repeatedly failed, at the time of the accident and for months afterward. The cutting shear rams are only designed to cut one pipe under high pressure.
This image was possible because the Coast Guard and BP finally were able to use a diamond saw to cut through the riser and the two pipes just above the blowout preventer, which allowed them to finally place a proper cap over the leak in mid-July.
