just so you know how much

bp and halliburton and transocean and cameron care about their HUMAN workers, they kept the survivors of the rig explosion ISOLATED FOR 40 HOURS AFTER the blow up. yup, it's UNAMERICAN to hold them (BP, HALLIBURTON, TRANSOCEAN, CAMERON) accountable, right rand?

Deepwater Horizon survivor describes horrors of blast and escape from rig

Stephen Davis recounts how he was flung against a wall by explosion and kept at sea on work boat for 40 hours after rescue
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent

These things Stephen Davis cannot banish from his memory from that night of chaos aboard the Deepwater Horizon: the sensation of being flung into a wall by a powerful explosion, the desperate, muddy scramble on a deck lit only by the reflections from a huge pillar of flame; the look in men's eyes before they jumped 18 metres (60ft) into the water.

"You could taste the fumes, that godawful taste in your mouth," he said. "It was hard to breathe. The oxygen was being sucked out of the living quarters.

"Then all of a sudden – just boom. It was the biggest explosion I ever heard in my life."

Davis was hurled 5 metres into a wall.

"The whole rig was vibrating and shaking," he said. "It's like we walked straight into hell."...................

.................For Davis, the events of that night, when the rig exploded killing 11 of the 126 crew, was only the beginning of his ordeal. He says he and other survivors were to spend the next 40 hours in isolation – barred from phoning their families – while his lawyers believe Transocean, the owners of the rig, readied its legal defences. Seventeen crew members were seriously injured in the incident.

For Barack Obama, whose officials are being held to account for their oversight of offshore drilling in congressional hearings this week, the disaster could be the defining event of his presidency.

For the companies involved in the disaster – BP, the well owner, Transocean, the rig owner, and subcontractors Halliburton and Cameron – that night was only the beginning of what lawyers predict will be one of the longest and most complicated court battles the US has ever seen..........

pic: Stephen Davis survivor of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform explosion. Photograph: guardian.co.uk