Donald Vidrine, a BP well site leader from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, leaves Federal Court during a break in the trial of Deepwater Horizon supervisor Robert Kaluza in New Orleans, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016. Vidrine, who pleaded guilty to a pollution charge in connection with the 2010 oil spill testified against Kaluza.
AP Photo/Max Becherer
Donald Vidrine, one of the two BP rig supervisors overseeing the Deepwater Horizon when the rig exploded in April 2010, died Saturday at his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 69.
Vidrine and his colleague, Bob Kaluza, were the focus of the government’s investigation into the offshore accident, which killed eleven workers and spilled millions of gallons of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Prosecutors claimed that Vidrine misinterpreted a critical pressure test that led to the explosion, and he and Kaluza were initially charged with 22 felony manslaughter charges.