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Nat Geo to feature 'Gulf Oil Spill' on Thursday, May 27

By April MacIntyre May 7, 2010, 7:02 GMT

Ship\'s mate Joe Thomas watches dispersant clotted oil and fresh crude float on surface nine miles from the Deepwater Horizon oil well spill source in the Gulf of Mexico from the bow of the research vessel Pelican on 06 May 2010. The Pelican, operated by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, is on a redirected mission for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to collect seafloor and water column oil spill data in the contamination area of the Deepwater Horizon oil well that exploded 20 April. EPA/CHRISTOPHER BERKEY

National Geographic Channel has announced they will run a special event covering the ecological disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico from the leaking BP underwater oil well.

NGC will air "Gulf Oil Spill" on Thursday, May 27 at 10pm ET/PT.  The special documentary will replace the previously scheduled "Known Universe: Cosmic Collisions."

The Nat Geo special will include exclusive footage from salvage crews on the scene.

The oil spill is now one of America's biggest environmental disasters ever, and the largest oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico since 1979.

Now, as experts scramble to stop the oil leak, NGC will reveal what happened to the Deepwater Horizon as a blowout tore it apart, killing 11 of the 126 men on board, sending oil toward the coastlines of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

The special will contain never-before-seen video shot by salvage crews as they battled to get close to the burning rig. Pulling together video and news footage from the scene, intercut with first-person accounts from the crew — get the inside story of what really happened during the first 36 hours of the disaster.