NEW ORLEANS — The image of thick crude gushing from a blown-out oil well a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico was turned off when a tightly fitting cap was secured on top a month-and-a-half ago.

Engineers weren't expecting that sight again today when they planned to delicately remove the cap as a prelude to raising the massive piece of equipment underneath that failed to prevent the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

But the government wasn't offering a guarantee no more oil would leak. Plans were being made for oil collection vessels to be on standby in case of a problem.

With the cap and failed blowout preventer removed temporarily until another blowout preventer can be installed, a lot will be riding on the stability of a plug that was created when mud and cement were pumped down into the well from the top.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A doctor whose decomposing body was found in a narrow chimney suffocated after she tried to get into the home of her boyfriend, authorities said Wednesday.The body of Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac was found Saturday — three days after she slid feet first down the chimney of the Bakersfield home, police said."The pressure being placed on the chest wouldn't allow her lungs to expand and she suffocated," Kern County sheriff-coroner spokesman Ray Pruitt said after an autopsy. The coroner's office also ruled the death was accidental. Foul play was not suspected.