kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
Bewildered by statements attributed to him, Christopher Boodram vehemently denied that he told Paria Fuel Trading Company’s Terminal Operations manager Collin Piper that it was unlikely his colleagues were alive inside the offshore pipeline.
Giving evidence at the Commission of Enquiry into the LMCS/Paria Diving Tragedy at the International Waterfront Centre, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, Boodram seemed confused by the sworn statement Piper provided to the commission.
CoE chairman Jerome Lynch, KC, asked Boodram if he recalled being on a phone call with Piper, HSEQ lead Randolph Archibald and general manager Mushtaq Mohammed at 10 pm on February 25, the day the accident happened.
Boodram said he had no recollection but did not doubt it happened.
“I very much doubt that I would say those fellas died because I came out and told everybody they were living.”
Maharaj then read an excerpt from Piper’s witness statement.
“I asked Boodram how he was doing. Mr Boodram responded, saying: ‘Mr Piper, I want to say upfront, I ain’t think them fellas make it’ or words to that effect. The phone was placed on speakerphone mode, and Mr Boodram’s words were audible to persons around. Mr Boodram then indicated that he crossed two welded seals on the way out of the pipeline. He said he then crossed Blacks (Rishi Nagassar), who was unresponsive.
“He indicated that four of them were making their way out of the pipeline, and they were helping Kazim Ali Jr, who had a broken leg and arm. He then said they came across an air pocket after which there was one person less. He then said they came across a second air pocket, after which they lost Kazim Jr. He further stated that Fyzie was with him until he reached the elbow and then Fyzie said he could not make it. Mr Boodram did not ask during that conversation whether anyone else was rescued from the pipeline.”
Boodram, the lone survivor from the ill-fated subsea maintenance work project at Paria’s Pointe-a-Pierre offshore facility, said the series of events Piper claimed occurred was inaccurate.
He then asked at what point he would have crossed Nagassar. He made it clear to the commissioners that at no point in time was he behind Nagassar, felt his body or saw him while inside that pipeline.
Divers could have been saved
Boodram maintained that rescue teams could have saved his four colleagues from the 30-inch diameter Sealine 36.
Probing Boodram’s promise to his colleagues that he would return or get help for them, Maharaj SC asked if he had the strength if he would have returned to the pipeline to rescue them.
Boodram said he would, even if he was not involved in the work. He said inside the pipeline was safer than outside, as there were no predators, currents or falling hazards.
He said that a diver only needed to swim inside the line with his oxygen tank removed from his back and use a rope or hooker as a safety retrieval mechanism. He said using the surface supply headgear that commercial divers use would result in difficulty, as it is heavy out of water.
“I challenge anyone to do it out of water. In a pipe or in water, lay down in a pipe with a hat and hose to perform a rescue,”
Boodram said.
He also argued that if he had worn commercial surface supply gear, he might have been a headless corpse after the vortex sucked him and his colleagues into the line.
While Paria Fuel’s probes and crawlers encountered scuba gear while seeking to ascertain the condition inside the pipeline, Boodram said if he went in for a rescue, he would have done what he did to escape the line while injured and bruised: pass over them.
With Maharaj holding up a ring to represent the line’s diameter, Boodram said a scuba tank was six inches wide, so anyone present at the CoE could have fit inside it.
Boodram said response teams could have easily mounted a rescue operation, reiterating that inside the pipeline was safer than the open ocean.
He pointed out that on a previous job, he swam to the elbow of Sealine 36 using scuba gear to insert a soft paper gasket while his colleagues on the outside bolted a new portion on the riser.
He told Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union attorney Nyree Alfonso that the same way he swam over scuba tanks in the pipeline, it was the same thing rescue divers would have had to have done to retrieve the injured divers.
Paria could have stopped work
Questioned by Paria’s attorney Gilbert Peterson SC, Boodram agreed that the Permit-to-Work (PTW) system outlined the work approved for the day.
Peterson presented the PTW for February 25, which did not include the removal of the migration chamber (mechanical and inflatable plugs).
But just like the point argued by LMCS attorney Kamini Persaud-Maraj on Monday, Boodram said the WTP does not include all the job details. He also argued that while the WTP approved the installation of a new riser, removing the plugs was necessary for that job.
Lynch also presented the LMCS method statement attached to the PWT, which included the removal of the migration chamber.
Boodram also contended that if Paria felt LMCS had varied the PTW, it could have stopped the operation altogether.
