Rig Worker Says She Can’t Testify At Spill Hearing

HOUSTON (AP) — A technician who was aboard the oil rig that exploded April 20 in the Gulf of Mexico says she is too traumatized to testify before a panel investigating the blast and subsequent spill.

Cathleena Willis was working for a Halliburton subsidiary the night of the blast that killed 11 people and caused more than 200 million gallons of oil to spew from a deep-sea well. BP PLC was the majority owner of the well and leased the rig from Transocean.

Willis filed a request Monday in federal court in Houston asking that the subpoena requiring her to testify to be quashed. Willis says she suffered physical and emotional trauma and watched friends and co-workers die.

Willis had been scheduled to testify during Thursday's hearings into the disaster, though she did not take the stand. A court has not ruled on her request.