On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform operated by BP, was disconnecting from a recently discovered oil reservoir 50 miles south of Louisiana when a cascade of equipment malfunctions caused a high-pressure explosion, killing 11 rig workers. For two days the rig burned then sank. As response crews worked to extinguish surface fires, oil and gas from the broken drill pipe was spewing a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico.