Gulf Oil Spill: Deepwater Horizon Rig Chief Mate Testifies Lifeboat Drills Were Incomplete, Time Limits Unclear

David Young, chief mate in charge of deck maintenance on the Transocean Deepwater Horizon oil rig the night the rig exploded caught fire and sank, testified before the Joint Investigating Committee recently.

Listen to Young's testimony.

He reveavled that although firefighting and abandon ship drills were held on the rig weekly, lifeboats were never filled to their 73-man capacity during drills. Moreover, 3-minute regulations to the contrary, on-board Coast Guard inspectors had insisted that drills could take up to ten minutes to complete.

Under questioning by Coast Guard personnel seeking to pinpoint inadequate training as contributing to the the confusion on the rig during the fire and abandon ship procedure, Young revealed that Coast Guard inspectors said that loaded lifeboat drills needed to be completed in 10 minutes or less, the investigating questioner's insistence on a 3-minute limit to the contrary,

A Transocean employee for three years on the Deepwater Horizon rig, Young, a graduate of New York Maritime College, has a bachelor's degree in naval architecture. Licensed in the the US and the Marshall Islands (where the rig was registered) Young was charged deck maintenance on the rig the day, and was expected to work as on-scene firefighting leader during the fire.

Young was also responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the rig's firefighting equipment, and took part in its abandon ship procedure the night the rig exploded.