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Iʹm going to say both of them revved up at the same time, and we
had engines 3 and 6 on line at the time. And in my opinion, Iʹm
going to say that Engine 3 most likely blew up, simply because
the explosion came from the port side, which Engine 3 was pretty
much located right next to the engine control room down one
level. And I really canʹt say which one revved up first, ʹcause to
306
me it sounded like both of them did.

Mike Williams, the chief electronics technician, who was in the electronic
technician’s room at the time of the blowout, testified:

. . . I knew which engines were on line at any given time. I could
hear Engine Number 3 start to rev up, and its normal operating
RPMʹs to way above what I ever heard it run before, and its
continuously steadily rising, and I knew then that we were ‐ we
were having a problem. As I started to push back from my desk,
the computer monitor exploded in front of me. All the lights in
my shop popped. The light bulbs themselves physically popped.
Now I know weʹre in trouble. I reached down to grab my door,
and at the ‐ simultaneously of grabbing the handle, the engine
goes to a level that is higher than I can even describe it. Itʹs
spinning so fast that it just ‐ It stopped spinning and thereʹs a
huge explosion.
307

Once Williams made it to the bridge, he explained to Captain Kuchta,
master of the Deepwater Horizon, “[y]ou need to understand. We have no engine
control room]. Itʹs gone. It has blown up. Engine Number 3 for sure has blown
308
up.”

Willie Stoner, a motorman, who was in the engine control room,
testified:

As it was roaring, the Number 3 engine you could hear the
Number 3 engine, which would be right here (indicating) started
revving up. And, as soon as it started revving up, it started a
load down change over. In other words, itʹs supposed to kick off

306 Testimony of Douglas Brown, Joint Investigation Hearing, May 26, 2010 at 93‐94, 97.
307 Williams testimony at 13.
308 Id. at 18.

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