"The top kill operation is not a guarantee of success," warned Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, who added that it had never been tried before in deep water under high pressures.
Colonel Popovic, chief of security of the Drina Corps, was one of the central figures who helped to plan and organize the killing operation, separating men, organizing convoys and showing up at the major killing sites, the judges said.
The static kill operation could last nearly three days.
The static kill operation could last for close to three days.
One is a so-called top kill operation, which involves pumping mud down the well to plug it.
For that reason, he said, the static kill operation makes sense to potentially kill the well two weeks earlier than the relief well would.
As the most senior security officer, "He had the clearest overall picture of the massive scale and scope of the killing operation," the judges said.
Then on Friday, a House special committee on Homeland Security, headed by the Republican majority leader, Dick Armey of Texas, approved legislation that would kill Operation TIPS.
Before BP began the static kill operation, they completed several hours of testing by shooting refined oil through the well to check well pressures and determine that they could inject liquids into the reservoir.
Once the relief well is cleaned, crews over the weekend will install a final section of pipe casing into the relief well to give it an extra measure of security before starting the static kill operation.
