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Four divers suffered one of the worst deaths possible during a Caribbean diving disaster that took a truly tragic turn.
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.
However, only Boordram escaped with his life while the others were killed in a freak incident.
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The men were dispatched to carry out repair work on an underwater pipeline used to carry oil from ships out at sea directly to the shoreline.
The divers worked in a hyperbaric chamber (or pressurised chamber) with water pumped out of it so they could change some nuts and fix a leak.
But when they removed an inflated plug using a lever, it created a pressure differential and all five of them were sucked into the 30-inch-diameter pipeline in Pointe-a-Pierre harbour.
Boodram survived the incident by managing to crawl and swim through oil and water to a bend in the pipeline, resulting in him eventually being rescued and pulled out by Kurban’s son after being trapped in there for three hours.
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However, despite Boodram's hopes of his colleagues being rescued, the other four divers lost their lives after being trapped in the pipe for what is believed to have been up to 48 hours.
An inquiry into their deaths has concluded that the pipeline’s owner, Paria Fuel Trading Company limited, should be tried for gross negligence and corporate manslaughter.
Boodram was understandably left traumatised by the incident when he learned that four of his colleagues lost their lives trapped inside the underwater pipe.
During his testimony, he said: “Mind you all, in there was like an unbelievable nightmare. Your eyes are burning. Every time you try to open your eyes, it burns.
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"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."
Boordram added: “I started seeing a little light in the habitat. I swear to God it was the angel of death coming for me. I told myself that this was the light that people talk about.”
The surviving diver also added that it had been his colleagues who told him the right direction to get out, otherwise he wouldn’t have made it out alive.
Divemagazine reports that the 380-page report produced by the commission of Enquiry (CoE) at a cost of $15.5million (£12.4million) finds that Paria failed in its duty of care to the divers.
It blames the company for the disaster but also outlines its ‘point-blank refusal’ to allow a rescue mission for the trapped (and injured but alive) divers.
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During the trial, Paria’s terminal operations manager, Collin Piper, argued he had made that decision to prevent more lives being lost.
“All realistic options should have been considered,” the report reads. “Even if the camera revealed that which they sought, no plan to carry out a rescue had been put in place.
"No attempt was made to engage with the country’s best experts in commercial diving which had arrived on site.”
LADbible has contacted Paria Fuel Trading Company for comment.
Topics: World News
Jess Battison