Their last breath of fresh air’

Sep 06, 2023

DURING the six-month Commission of Enquiry into the Berth 5 tragedy, witnesses testified about what may have happened inside the hyperbaric chamber which led to five men being sucked into an underwater pipeline, from which only one emerged alive.

But it was only yesterday, 13 months after it happened, that the chamber was seen by members of the commission who consider it the final piece of evidence towards a report that will be ready in April.

"That space…was their last breath of fresh air," said commission chairman Jerome Lynch, as he explained the importance of being able to examine the chamber.

The 13-tonne chamber, which is about the length of a bus, broke free and sank to the seabed during a botched rescue operation to reach the divers.

It was retrieved on February 11 this year, taken on a barge to Chaguaramas, and trucked back to Paria's Pointe-a-Pierre compound.

Among those who came yesterday was LMCS Ltd's managing director Kazim Ali Snr who fought back tears after viewing the chamber in which his son Kazim Ali Jnr, Yusuf Henry, Fyzal Kurban, and Rishi Nagessar were working the afternoon of February 25, 2022.

It was the first time since losing his son that Ali Snr saw the chamber, which was covered in decaying barnacles, with a high scent of decomposition.

Only Christopher Boodram survived being pulled into the 30-inch diameter pipe operated by Paria Fuel Trading Company. The others may have been alive for hours before running out of air and drowning, according to two separate autopsies and witness accounts.

It was Boodram's evidence, the video footage from a camera inside the chamber, and video from the GoPro camera being worked by Ali Jnr, which informed the commission about what was taking place when the water rushed in.

However, Chairman Lynch asked to view the chamber to better understand the dimensions of the space in which the men were working, and the mechanical plug they extracted shortly before the differential pressure event.

This was facilitated on Wednesday by Paria, which allowed members of the media to accompany attorneys, Commissioner Gregory Wilson, and Chairman Lynch, who allowed Kazim Ali Snr to visit the site only with his company's attorney Kamini Persaud-Maraj.

At the site, Lynch noted and asked that photographs be taken of the livestreaming camera inside the chamber, the air hoses, and the limited space (an 8x8x8 feet cube) in which the men were working.

Why the visit?

Lynch told reporters the chamber was "clearly manufactured for a slightly different job.

"Obviously, it was not suitable. It was a very small space to be working, particularly if three or four men were in that chamber at the same time. It allows me to get some sense of scale, and what was being required of the men in this confined space (so that) once the differential pressure was created, it inevitably dragged everything, including those men. One can see how that might have happened, given that small space they were actually in".

He said this would be the final piece of evidence to be considered by the commission.

He said he had already started the process of writing the report that would go to the Office of the President with a recommendation that it go public.

"It's going to take a little while. It's a vast body of evidence, of course a great deal more than what the public has seen. We have tens of thousands of pages to sift through."

He said that the promise of delivering the report by April would likely be delayed by a week or two.

Lynch said he had reserved an additional day of hearing in the event the commission needed to hear further evidence but it was not necessary

"I considered whether or not we should hear legal arguments in relation to one issue that remain crucial, and that was to do with whether there is any separate legal liability that might arise from a failure to rescue. I have received substantial submission made from various parties and it didn't seem to be necessary."

Regarding allowing Kazim Ali Snr to be at yesterday's site visit, Lynch said "I’m not entirely sure why he came today, but I gave him some private time, with his counsel, on his own, to go to the habitat".

The chamber

According to the witness evidence of Kasim Ali Snr, the chamber was constructed by his company based on habitats used previously by the predecessor companies of Paria – Trintoc and Petrotrin.

He said each time the chamber was used, there were light modifications to fit the layout of the job required.

According to Ali, the chamber consists of a cube 8 feet by 8 feet by 8 feet, with an open bottom constructed from quarter-inch-thick steel plate reinforced with mild steel C sections and angle iron.

On the top of the cube is a 50-inch diameter pipe extending 24 feet high above the cube.

At the top of this 50 feet pipe is a pair of flange consisting of a slip-on flange and a blind flange which can be removed to provide access for placement and removal of material or emergency access.

This is the opening through which the part of the pipe that is cut from the riser is taken out by a crane.

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