It’s a tragic irony that the day before the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil well disaster, executives from BP and the rig’s operators, Transocean, visited the platform on a “management tour” that included a number of specific safety-related purposes.

During the tour, there were already signs that all was not right on the ocean floor. The drilling of the well had been completed, and the rig was getting ready to move. Technicians were cementing inside the pipe to stabilize the well head. The VIPs were told personnel were having trouble getting the pipes lined up to test the effectiveness of the seal, but it “was no big deal.” Accepting that the situation was under control, the visiting executives did not query how the problem was being solved or how personnel were monitoring the flows. Had any of the right questions been asked, or had the VIPs—all of whom had worked on oil rigs and had a detailed knowledge of drilling operations—intervened at this stage to ensure the right monitoring procedures were being implemented, the disaster could have been averted. They didn’t, and the next day an explosion blew up the platform, killing 11 crew members and resulting in millions of barrels of crude oil being spilled into the Gulf of Mexico.

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