The chief mechanic of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig testified Wednesday that a BP official and a Deepwater rig manager were arguing on board the rig, just hours before the April 20 explosion.

The testimony of the mechanic, Douglas Brown, was given during the first day of the second session of federal hearings about the explosion that has led to several million gallons of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. BP leases the Deepwater Horizon well from rig owner Transocean.

Brown said he witnessed an argument between a BP representative and Jimmy Herald, a Deepwater Horizon offshore manager, around 11 a.m. on the rig. According to Brown, the debate ended when Herald left the meeting grumbling to himself, saying “I guess that’s what we have those pinchers for.” Brown told investigators he believes this statement was in reference to the shear rams on a blowout preventer, the device used to slam a well shut in an emergency. Eleven hours later, the well exploded and the preventer failed to work.

“Somewhere before 10 o’clock you heard a large air leak sound,” Brown said. “We started hearing gas alarms going off and they kept piling on top of one another and more and more over the radio. And that’s when the power went out, and we were in the dark. After that was the first explosion. There was a hole in the floor and I fell through it. When I tried to get up the second explosion happened.”

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service are conducting a joint investigation into the April 20 blast and subsequent oil leak. One round of hearings was held two weeks ago and focused on the explosion itself. A second round started at a Kenner Hotel on Wednesday, focusing on the emergency preparedness of the crew, and a third round, known as the “technical verification” stage, is tentatively planned for July.

Investigators have said a final report will be released some time after the hearings conclude.

Brown’s testimony was the most vivid during a day that was dominated by technical explanations. During questioning from a BP lawyer, Brown was asked detailed questions about the emergency preparedness of the Deepwater rig, including what emergency materials were in the lifeboats. In response to many of the questions, Brown’s lawyer told the court that his client had suffered a severe head injury as a result of the explosion and would be unable to answer very specific questions.

At various points during the hearing, Transocean officials said that BP was responsible for certain tasks, while the sole BP official to testify raised questions that implied that Transocean bore more responsibility.

During the testimony of Steve Tink, BP’s health, safety and environmental manager, the atmosphere changed in the hearing room. People crowded in, but instead of taking any of the nearly 30 empty seats, they stood in the back and listened intently.

Tink’s testimony pointed special attention to a document that described the company’s safety plan. The precise content of the document was only broadly discussed, but prompted numerous questions. Tink claimed to have never seen the document, but it was later revealed that he wrote it.

“This document was done by my people,” he said

Tink said he was unable to answer many of the questions posed by the commission, stating they were not in his area of expertise.

The hearings are scheduled to resume at 8 a.m. Thursday and continue through Saturday.

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