Character mistake: When Mike's wife is watching the news about the oil rig on fire, you can see the TV with part of the U.S. map on it and 'Mississippi' is misspelled as Missisippi. (01:09:10)
Character mistake: Jimmy is seen reading a weather report while on the helicopter. However it's spelled "weater". (00:11:00)
Answer: The disaster started as a gas blow-out followed by a massive explosion on the oil rig, visible from 40 miles away. Eleven people were killed. Two days later, the burning rig collapsed into the sea, which severed the wellhead at a depth of over 4000 feet. If anything, the movie underplayed the disaster.
Charles Austin Miller
Actually, according to history vs Hollywood the real life explosion was equally as bad as what's shown in the movie.