BP blast re-enacted by computer at trial - By BRAD HEM, Houston Chronicle
Computer, audio recording speak to day of 'living hell'
The consensus among government and independent experts is that the disaster might have been avoided had the stack been routed to a flare to burn off excess hydrocarbons.
A 1991 internal document showed the company could have added a flare for $9.3 million.
'They not only saw it coming,' plaintiffs' attorney Lance Lubel said. 'They created it. That was the strategy. Not a mistake, a business plan.'
BP itself highlighted the condition of the refinery in 2003 when the company appealed the property tax value Galveston County placed on it.