BP CEO Tony Hayward’s crisis communications skills have been tested to the limit by America’s biggest oil spill and found wanting.

The Guardian in an editorial accused him of “five star insensitivity” when he complained: “I would like my life back,” as he toured the clean-up operations in Louisiana.

The comment was greeted with a mixture of disbelief and outrage in the wake of a drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico which claimed the lives of 11 workers and caused an environmental catastrophe.

Kurt Arnold, a Houston lawyer representing survivors and families of workers killed on the Deepwater Horizon rig, said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle that the remarks showed that Hayward was disconnected from the suffering the disaster had caused.

“I think his idea of getting his life back and these folks’ ideas of getting their lives back are different universes,” Arnold said.

One of the golden rules of crisis communication is for a company to show empathy with those affected by any disaster.

Hayward’s comments, focusing on his own discomfort, failed that crucial test.

Hayward, a geologist, later issued an apology for his comments, admitting they had been “hurtful and thoughtless.”