We were just inches of away from from ending this thing minutes after the explosion, with just minimal oil getting into the GOM. Excellent story in today's NY Times about a fail safe action that was applied almost immediately after the explosion. It cut the pipe but just missed by inches from capping the well and preventing this disaster very early and nearly entirely.
Excerpt:
Engineers sent robotic submersibles 5,000 feet deep to prod the blind shear ram, nestled in the bosom of a five-story blowout preventer standing guard over the Macondo well.
They were driven on, documents and interviews reveal, by indications that the shear ram’s blades had come within a few maddening inches of achieving their purpose. Again and again, they tried to make the blades close completely, knowing it was their best chance to end the nightmare of oil and gas billowing into the Gulf of Mexico.
“If that would’ve worked,” a senior oil industry executive said of the blind shear ram, “that rig wouldn’t have burned up and sunk.”
Story and video:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/us/21blowout.html?ref=us
Full Version: Oil spill - updated
QUOTE (lab94 @ Jun 23 2010, 10:40 PM) 
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