By Sue-Ann Wayow
IF PARIA Fuel Trading Company Ltd had swung into swift action to save the lives of the four underwater divers whose bodies were eventually retrieved, the men would have still been alive today.
Owner of LMCS, Kazim Ali, Sr, told the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) on Monday that the men including his son Kazim Ali Jr had at least one hour to live after being sucked into a pipeline at Berth #6 where they were working.
He said, “Paria had done a seabed inspection as well as inside of the chamber. When they told me there was nothing inside the chamber or from the seabed which would have been bolts, spanners, then we assumed everything was sucked into the pipeline.”
Paria concluded that the men had a very slim chance of survival at an early stage in the rescue efforts Ali said.
He said, “The whiteboard, at the incident command office, there is a statement there from one, the HSE guy that about 3.48 (pm) saying survival was very slim. The only reason you would say that is if he knew, if you consider they were in the pipeline.”
Ali learnt that the men disappeared at around 3 pm on February 25.
He communicated with Paria via telephone saying the men could have been rescued and was gathering his resources to do just that but was banned from any rescue efforts by Paria.
Last month, during a previous evidential hearing, Paria’s technical and maintenance manager Michael Wei told the CoE that Paria needed to assess the pipeline conditions before allowing anyone to venture in to perform rescue operations.
