The lone survivor of a tragic disaster in the Caribbean Sea wept when he gave evidence to an inquiry into what happened.
On 25 February 2022, Christopher Boodram, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry, Kazim Ali Jr, and Rishi Nagassar were carrying out maintenance work off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.
They were working on an underwater pipeline that carried oil from ships out at sea to the shore, and the divers were in a hyperbaric chamber with the water pumped out so they could carry out repairs.
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However, when they removed an inflated plug, it resulted in a pressure differential and the five men were sucked into a 30-inch-diameter pipe in Pointe-a-Pierre harbour.
Of the five men trapped inside, Boodram was the only survivor as he was able to crawl and swim through oil until he was rescued.
The other four divers did not survive, having been trapped in the pipe for what is believed to be up to 48 hours.
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"Mind you all, in there was like an unbelievable nightmare. Your eyes are burning. Every time you try to open your eyes, it burns," Boodram said during the inquiry of his attempt to make it through the pipe and get help for the others.
"It is pitch black; you cannot see anything. Your throat is burning. Your ears are ringing, and your body is sore.
"Inside there was not just a crawl through a pipe like how plenty of people might be thinking."
During his testimony, he broke down and said 'I failed them', telling the inquiry that his colleagues told him which direction to go and credited them with his survival.
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While Boodram may have feared that he 'failed' his colleagues, according to an AP report earlier this year, the government inquiry into the disaster recommended that prosecutors file charges against Paria Fuel Trading Company for corporate manslaughter.
The inquiry claimed that Paria made 'little or no attempt to rescue' the divers.
The government's report accused the company of stopping a contractor from sending down commercial divers for a rescue operation, and of spending hours searching the open sea for them despite knowing they could be trapped inside the pipe.
The report said: "Paria made little or no attempt to rescue in that they failed to manage and coordinate the resources that were available.
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"The opportunity to rescue the men from the pipe was completely wasted by a degree of inertia that is difficult to comprehend."
The report claims there was a 'point-blank refusal' to allow a rescue mission, though Paria’s terminal operations manager, Collin Piper, argued that he made the decision to prevent more lives from being lost.
LADbible has contacted Paria Fuel Trading Company for comment.
Topics: World News
Joe Harker