At first, BP tried to stop the oil rushing into the Gulf of Mexico by flipping a blowout preventer switch. A week ago, they attempted to capture the leak with a 100-ton box. The latest experiment? Trying to guide a skinny, mile-long tube into the gusher. BP technicians were gingerly moving joysticks to guide deep-sea robots and thread the 6-inch tube with a rubber stopper into the 21-inch pipe spewing oil from the ocean floor. That work continued today for a second day, BP said.
BP's Chief Executive Tony Hayward acknowledged the disaster will change the rules for deepwater drilling in US waters, saying, "You can't have an incident of this seriousness and not expect significant changes as a consequence." However, he told the BBC in an interview broadcast today, "I don't believe it should [result in a ban], in the same way as Apollo 13 did not stop the space program nor have serious airline accidents from time to time stopped people flying." (More Gulf oil spill stories.)