Captain's leadership questioned by lead federal investigator

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/08/gulf-oil-spill-captains-leadership-questioned-by-lead-federal-investigator.html

Is it a good idea to have a captain of an oil rig who has no say in decisions that could jeopardize the safety of his crew?

That's one key question a lead federal investigator has for Transocean, the owner and operator of the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon, whose destruction caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

At a federal hearing Tuesday in Houston, investigator Hung Nguyen, a U.S. Coast Guard captain, illustrated how no single person seemed to be in charge and aware of all risks on the oil rig.

(snip)
Furthermore, shore-based Transocean rig manager Paul Johnson testified Monday that he never received documents from BP that are important to his job duties -- the BP morning reports and the plan to plug the well.

Nguyen castigated Winslow, the Transocean performance manager, for not knowing whether Transocean had conducted an internal audit as to whether its safety management system was adequate according to the International Safety Management Code.

"It's been four months since the tragedy, and you don't know?" Nguyen asked.