Mary Landrieu: “I rise today, though, to speak on an equally serious subject--actually, a tragedy and disaster that is occurring right…”

“I rise today, though, to speak on an equally serious subject--actually, a tragedy and disaster that is occurring right now off the coast of my home State, in Louisiana. On Tuesday, on April 20, as we all now know, at approximately 10 p.m., a tremendous and terrible explosion occurred aboard a state-of-the-art drill ship, the Transocean Deepwater Horizon. There were 126 men and women onboard that rig. It was drilling in almost 6,000 feet of water--a real technological feat--some 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. The explosion, unfortunately and sadly, killed 11 men and 17 others were injured--3 of them critically--and today 1 remains in the hospital. We don't know what precisely caused this accident, but at present it appears that the blow-out preventer failed.”