Source: The Times-Picayune

A statement to Coast Guard rescuers shortly after the Deepwater Horizon blew up contains explosive allegations about the way the rig's captain handled the emergency.

Stephen Bertone, the rig's chief engineer, stated 26 hours after the accident that killed 11 crew members that Capt. Curt Kuchta yelled at one employee for pushing a distress button and ordered another to leave behind an injured man on a gurney, according to recitation of the previously sealed statement by BP lawyer Richard Godfrey.

Bertone indicated in other testimony Monday that a man on the gurney was lifted into a life raft and brought to safety.

Godfrey put the pressure on Bertone to explain his initial incident statement, even though Bertone's lawyer advised him not to comment on it. That set off a long dispute over whether the witness would answer or if he has to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.

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