From the Washington Post, as foretold earlier by George Washington:
BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the company determined the “top kill” method had failed after studying it for three days. The method involved pumping heavy drilling mud into a crippled well 5,000 feet underwater.
“We have not been able to stop the flow,” Suttles said. “We have made the decision to move onto the next option.”…..
BP says it’s already preparing for the next attempt to stop the leak. Under the new plan, BP would use robot submarines to cut off the damaged riser from which the oil is leaking, and then try to cap it with a containment valve. The new attempt would take four days to complete.
“We’re confident the job will work but obviously we can’t guarantee success,” Suttles said of the new plan.
Um, didn’t BP peg the odds of success of the top kill at 60% to 70%? I don’t have much confidence in their “confidence”.








See http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/5/21/868490/-Fishgrease:-Booming-the-Top-Kill
(The guy writing seems very knowledgeable and trustworthy, and he argues that “If they had a better idea of how Top Kill was going to work, they would have tried it long long LONG before now.”)
and http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/5/28/870855/-Fishgrease:-Booming-The-News-Media