By Sue-Ann Wayow
BY midnight on Friday, February 25, 2022, any hope of finding the four LMCS divers alive was greatly diminished by Paria Fuel Trading Company Ltd.
On Thursday, Paria’s Terminal Operations Manager Collin Piper told the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) tasked with the investigation of the tragic circumstances that weekend, that Paria could only guess and make assumptions as to what was really taking place inside the pipeline where the men’s bodies were eventually found.
Piper’s evidence began on Wednesday following Paria’s acting Technical Lead Catherine Balkissoon’s.
CoE’s counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, continued his line of questioning to Piper and took him through the timeline and occurrence of events when the accident first occurred at 2.45 pm on February 25, at Paria’s berth #6 just offshore Pointe-a-Pierre.
When sole survivor of the incident Christopher Boodram emerged from the pipeline between 5 pm and 5.30 pm, he brought with him renewed hope and confirmation that the other divers – Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry, Rishi Nagassar and Kazim Ali Jr were also in that pipeline.
According to chairman of the Commission Jerome Lynch, KC, “It was like a moment of salvation” to which Piper agreed.
Although Boodram emerged from the pipe covered in oil, however, he still did not provide to Paria enough information as to the conditions of the pipeline, Piper said.
He also confirmed that Boodram kept pleading for someone to go into the pipe to rescue the other four.
When asked if Paria had a timeline to act in order to get the men out of the pipeline alive, Piper responded, “We knew if there were any pockets, there would be vapours in it, so we knew it would be a vapour space. We also knew all they would have other than that would be their air bottles and that would give them maybe a couple hours. So that was the timeline we understood.”
Maharaj asked, “A couple hours would have been?”
Piper said, “Two, three hours for the most.”
This was from the time Boodram emerged from the pipe.
Piper added though, “there was no way to tell.”
Lynch asked if Piper had factored in that Boodram was already in the pipe for several hours to which Piper responded yes.
He then asked if from the moment the incident occurred if a timeline was in place for a course of action to which Piper also responded yes.
Lynch also asked if based on information if a calculation was made as to how long the men could be sustained on the air they had in the pipeline based on the vapour spaces and air tanks used by the divers.
A similar question was also posed to Balkissoon during her testimony.
Piper said, “At that point in time, we did not calculate anything. At that point in time, we were just really saying listen, this is a vapour space, we looked at the air bottles and so on. If one man had one air bottle per man or if one man had two bottles so that was the sort of limits we were given, three, four, five hours for the most.”
He added, “We did not attempt to calculate it because we had limited information.”
Agreeing with Lynch that it could have been calculated, Piper said, “It was just guesswork at that time. We could only estimate in as much information we had and the only information we would have had would have been the air tanks.
“We did not know the vapour space. We simply did not have that information at that time.”
While records showed how much oil was pumped out of the pipeline, Piper also said he did not seek that information during that time.
Lynch asked, “You did not look to see if there were any records kept your own company as to the amount of oil that there might have been in the pipeline at that time?”
Piper said, “No sir, I did not look.”
Lynch further enquired if that information would have been useful in a calculation of how much air might have available in the pipeline, a calculation that did not occur.
He also asked if that would have been a good idea to follow through on.
Piper replied, “Again, it would have been a guide but we simply… we understood listen, this was only a few hours.”
Lynch asked, “Are you saying realistically, once five hours had passed, it was too late?”
Piper answered, “I could not say that definitively sir. We were working with what is the best. We were hoping for the best.”
Lynch said, “As each minute passes, so does the chances or the possibilities of saving anybody diminishes.”
Piper said, “Of course.”
Lynch, “And there is an outer limit and that outer limit was potentially calculated.”
Piper, “Yes sir.”
Lynch, “You were working on what, five hours as a maximum?”
Piper, “I was working maybe five hours, maybe midnight at the outside.”
Lynch, “Midnight at the outside? Realistically? Nine hours after the event?”
Piper, “Of course working with hope sir.”
