Louisiana: The United States could be facing its worst oil spill disaster ever at an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. NDTV's Sarah Jacob was embedded with the US coast guard and flew over the source of the oil spill to bring you these exclusive pictures of the environmental disaster unfolding below. (
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From the air it almost looks pretty. But it is a deceptive beauty: the vast Gulf of Mexico, coated millions of gallons of crude oil.
A thousand feet over ground zero, the images of the massive and still uncontrolled oil spill are both overwhelming and heartbreaking but the first reaction is of the smell, the smell of oil in the air.
Instead, of a black, sludgy texture, surprisingly, the oil slick is rust orange almost blood red as if a giant artery has been sliced, its contents forming jarring, ugly scars on the smooth surface of the gulf.
Lieutenant-Commander David Hunter, Pilot says, "The day after the rig sank it was pretty devastating to see that much oil in the water and now it's definitely gotten thicker and spread out over a larger area."
Planes have air dropped over 500,000 gallons of chemical dispersant to break up the globs of oil.
Al Armendariz of the US Environmental Protection Agency says, "It is a difficult choice of two outcomes. We know that crude oil is toxic and we want to remove it as quickly as possible. At the same time we want to minimize the use of these chemicals as they are also toxic but we feel right now the most prudent choice is to allow the use of these dispersants to minimize the effect of the crude oil and prevent it as much as possible from coming ashore."
Carried by the wind and currents, this giant oil slick is inching towards the coastline bringing with it the threat of unpredictable consequences to the ecosystem and the livelihoods of those who depend on it. The worst could be yet to come.