How are these "whackjobs" relevant to a bunch of highly paid engineers monitoring a drilling operation 24/7 possibly trying to shave $500,000 a day to get the floating rig to leave when there were signs of trouble rather than spend more time to do it right? Somebody that was contracted to pour concrete in the deep ocean, but perhaps botched the job?
Well said. BP site managers pressured Transocean into stepping up the drilling pace which compromised the integrity of the drill hole walls, cracking them. Also, the rate of downward pressure at which the man-made "mud" was pumped back down into the drill whole was now insufficient. This "mud" creates a downforce which is designed to counteract the upward pressure of the oil and gas so that they can cap the well with concrete plugs allowing for extraction at a later date.
Plus, that's light crude they could sell for a premium, which is why they drilled a mile deep to get it.
To be clear, that site is one mile just to the ocean floor and approximately another THREE miles to the well, making it one of the deepest wells in the world, if not the deepest.