It was five years ago today that an undersea BP oil well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico 40 miles off the Louisiana coastline, killing 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon rig and causing one of the worst environmental disasters in US history.
For 87 agonising days, millions of gallons oil spewed from the ocean floor 5,000 ft beneath the ocean surface, much of it flowing under the relentless gaze of a televised “spill cam” as BP tried various methods to cap the blow-out.
The withering public criticism of BP deepened as birds, fish and shrimp died and thick brown oil washed ashore on the white sand beaches and in the ecologically vital marshlands of the Gulf coast, forcing fishing and tourism businesses to shutter.