In February 2022, five divers were working inside a pressurized chamber on an undersea fuel line off Pointe-a-Pierre, Trinidad, when an invisible pressure trap β sealed inside the pipeline for nearly a month β was unknowingly set loose. In one second, a vortex pulled all five men and everything around them into a pipe just thirty inches wide, in total darkness, coated in oil. What followed was one of the most extraordinary self-rescues ever recorded: a crawl through flooded steel with borrowed air, a promise made in the dark, and a hand that had to be pried loose. But the most haunting question isn't what happened inside the pipe β it's what happened on the surface, where rescuers stood ready and a knock kept answering from inside the steel. Drawn entirely from sworn testimony and a government Commission of Enquiry's final report, this is the story of the Paria diving disaster β and the man who came out.
Time Stamps:Β
00:00 Disaster Strikes Intro
00:43 Inside the Habitat
02:07 Paria Disaster Setup
03:09 Meet the Dive Crew
05:13 Habitat and Plug Removal
06:38 Delta P Catastrophe
10:01 Trapped Alive in Darkness
12:38 Spreading Calm and Moving
14:41 Rationing Air to Survive
17:56 GoPro Decision Point
18:48 Choosing the Way Out
21:50 Solo Crawl Through Flooded Pipe
24:04 Escape to an Empty Surface
28:19 Rescue That Never Came
30:51 Delays Cameras and Families
34:00 From Rescue to Recovery
35:06 GoPro Audio and Outrage
36:50 Inquiry Findings and Negligence
40:27 Charges and Legal Roadblocks
42:11 Aftermath for Boodram
43:50 Final Lessons and Farewell
Key references
- Report of the Commission of Enquiry into the tragic incidents of 25 February 2022 at Paria Fuel Trading Co. Ltd, No. 36 Sealine Riser, Berth No. 6, Pointe-a-Pierre (laid in Parliament January 19, 2024)
- Douglas, Sean. "CoE hears Paria survivor's tale: Nightmare." Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, November 23, 2022
- "Boodram recalls Paria tragedy at CoE." Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, November 22, 2022
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