It is hard to tell what happened and no one that was there seems to be talking. And while I have never been a well that was lost, I have been on rigs where the mud man saved our asses.
From what have read and heard, it does not seem that the blow out preventer failed completely as there would be much more oil in the water than is being reported.
Perhaps things happened very quickly and the BOP was not engaged or instruments failed and there was little warning.
There is some other speculation that some other thing on the platform exploded.
Any input you can give, even speculation, would be appreciated. I hired a lot of out of work roughnecks over the years to work my decks until a slot opened up for them on a rig. Good men, hard workers and I gained an overall respect for the ones I knew. We pray for the eleven missing and the many other captains and crews lost to the Gulf of Mexico every year or so.