'I thought I'd died and gone to Hell': The haunting words of the sole survivor of an unimaginably horrific accident in which five divers were sucked hundreds of feet into a pipe - as described in a riveting Mail podcast

Daily Mail​

23-05-2025

As Christopher Boodram squinted in the darkness trying to work out where he was, he knew he was in trouble. His eyes were burning with toxic fumes.
The last thing the commercial diver remembered was struggling to repair an oil pipe in the Caribbean sea.
Now, he was lying flat on his back deep in thick black liquid and had to crane up his neck to reach the tiny pocket of air above him to breathe.
Reaching out with his hands and feet he found he was surrounded, encased, by a tube of corroded metal barely wider than his shoulders.
He tried to sit up and scraped his head on the harsh metal. That was when he knew for certain where he was: he was trapped inside the pipeline – somewhere deep beneath the waves.
'I wasn't sure if I was alive or if this was Hell,' Christopher told the Daily Mail.
'I was in pitch black. In pain. I could hear screams and bawling. If you read any biblical book and they explain Hell to you, they will tell you that you're on fire. My body was burning all over.'
Three years have passed since Christopher, now 39, was trapped off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.
But his soft Trinidadian voice is still edged with fear as he tells us the story at the heart of Pipeline, the Daily Mail's six-part investigative podcast that launched this week.
On February 25, 2022, the married father-of-five had been carrying out a routine repair with four fellow divers – below the waterline but close to the surface – when, with no warning, they were sucked into the 30in-wide pipe and pulled more than 60ft down.
Half-submerged in oily water and gasping for breath, the men came to a sudden halt where there was an air pocket deep inside the line as it snaked along the seabed.
Incredibly, they had all survived, although at least two had broken bones. All were in agony, disorientated and terrified they would die a slow death beneath the sea.
Over three long hours, Christopher alone managed to claw his way back through the pipe towards the surface.
He was hauled out by divers – barely alive – and told them that the other men were still alive inside the pipe. They could still be saved. He implored them to send help.
But no one did. Instead, the Paria Fuel Trading Company, the Trinidadian state-owned oil firm that controls the pipeline and had commissioned the contracting firm the divers were working for that day, prevented rescuers from going into the pipe.
By the time six days had passed, the bodies of the four men had been flushed out to clear the line.
An autopsy showed they had not died quickly in the cramped pipe. One of them may have lived for up to 39 hours.
Yet three years on, not one person has been brought to justice. Neither Christopher nor the families of those killed have received a penny in compensation.
While the world was captivated by the rescue of 15 young footballers from a Thai cave in 2018 and horrified by the Titan submersible disaster of 2023, few outside the Caribbean have heard of the 'Paria Diving Tragedy'.
But this one horrifying question refuses to go away: why were four men left to die under the sea?
As Pipeline uncovers, this is a story of failing safety standards, lucrative contracts and secretive political relationships.
We knocked on the doors of some of Trinidad's most powerful men and confronted the then-prime minister at Parliament.
Our enquiries might even have triggered an early election on the island last month – an election that could change everything for the victims of the Paria Tragedy.
To hear the full detail of what we uncovered, you will have to listen to our Pipeline podcast. But today, we walk you through the key events of that horrifying day.
Christopher had woken early at his home in San Fernando, the industrial capital of Trinidad.
He prayed, did his daily exercises, then kissed his wife Candy and five children goodbye before heading to work.
Unlike its Caribbean neighbours, which rely heavily on tourism, Trinidad gets its money primarily from oil and gas. Oil industry paraphernalia is everywhere you look in San Fernando and almost everyone there is linked to the industry in some way.
Some are extraordinarily wealthy and enjoy charmed lives in gated hilltop mansions overlooking the ocean.
Among them are Paria executives whose lucrative positions have raised eyebrows, given some lack nearly any experience in the oil industry.
Others are like Christopher and his four fellow divers that day, Kazim Ali Jnr (36), Yusuf Henry (31), Fyzal Kurban (57) and Rishi Nagassar (48).
They were colleagues who described each other as brothers, bonded by years of sweat and graft in labour-intensive jobs.
The five men worked for Land and Marine Contracting Services (LMCS), a Caribbean company commissioned by Paria Fuel Trading Company to fix an oil pipe leak about a mile and a half from San Fernando.
That morning the weather was miserable but it marked the start of the Carnival weekend in Trinidad so the men were excited to finish and get home to celebrate with their families.
They took a boat out to Berth 6 – the oil platform just by the leaking pipe – where they put on their scuba gear and did their final checks. Before they climbed into the sea, they posed for a photo. It was to be the last picture of them all alive.
The oil pipe they were repairing is a U-shape that goes 60ft down from Berth 6, across the sea floor 1,200ft towards the coast, and up to the surface at another platform called Berth 5 near Pointe-a-Pierre, a town just up the coast from San Fernando.
At both platforms, when operational, ships dock to either deposit oil into the line or pick it up – a line connects Berth 5 to the refinery on the mainland.
The divers swam down about 15ft and entered a hatch on the underside of the so-called 'habitat' in which they would be working.
The habitat is an 8ft by 8ft underwater oxygenated chamber that had been fitted around the leaking section of pipe.
They hung up their scuba gear and oxygen tanks inside and got to work. The plan was simple – cut away and replace the leaking section of pipe.
Days earlier, while the leaky pipe was still intact, they had lowered an inflatable bung from the top at Berth 6 down the line to just below where they would be working. Then they inflated it to seal the pipe while they operated.
Their last task that day, once the leaky section of pipe had been removed, was to take out the inflatable bung. They expected to ease it out gently.
But, as it deflated, the bung was violently sucked down the hole.
Suddenly, seawater crashed up through the habitat's hatch, filling the chamber and cascading down the pipe. It formed a terrifying vortex.
'I saw the water just start to rise,' Christopher said. 'I say, 'Yo, this thing filling up. Let we get out of here. Stop all you're doing. Let we get out of here.'
He was standing on a raised platform, but within seconds the water had risen to his feet. He had no time to think. Christopher jumped, hoping to swim out of the hatch to safety.
'As I jumped, instead of feeling gravity pulling me down, I actually felt like the water just come up and meet me,' he said.
The men had fallen victim to a catastrophic turn of events. Unknown to them, a terrible mistake had been made weeks before – a mistake we explore in our podcast.
It meant the moment they removed that bung it created a powerful suction force that pulled sea water straight into the habitat where they were working and washed men and water alike down into the pipeline.
In an instant, Christopher was hurtling straight down towards the sea floor. 'I'm passing through the pipe at unbelievable speeds,' he said. At the time, though, amid the chaos, he had no idea he was in the oil line.
Christopher desperately tried to stop himself by wedging his body against the sides of the pipe – all the time holding his breath to stop himself drowning in the oily water, his lungs burning.
'I was chucking myself against the pipe,' he said. 'I was ready to just give up. Your muscles are contracting and trying to force you to open your mouth to breathe.'
Then, just as he felt he couldn't go on, the water suddenly fell away from him.
'I just gasped for breath,' he said. He had come to a halt with a pocket of air running along the pipe just above his head.
It was here, lying in the pitch darkness, that he entertained the possibility that he had died and gone to Hell.
'You're trying to open your eyes, it's burning,' he says. 'Your nose, your lungs, everything burning.'
His hand was pinned behind his back, his shoulder felt broken and he could hardly move.
The pipe was almost filled with the oily liquid. Christopher had to tense his abdomen in a half sit-up continually just to keep his head out of the water. There were just three fists of distance between his nose and the top of the pipe.
His friends' screams of agony ricocheted around the pipe. They had been sucked in with him. They, too, had come to a halt along the air pocket.
Christopher composed himself. 'If you ain't dead you're alive, and if you're alive we have a chance to survive,' he told himself. 'I started to push forward.'
He called out to his friends, telling them to gather.
Fyzal had found one of the oxygen tanks that got sucked down with them that gave him some clean air, but the others were breathing in fumes.
Rishi was too injured to move, but Kaz Jnr, Yusuf and Fyzal managed to link up, forming a human chain, lying on their backs, foot to shoulder, to start pushing themselves along together.
But there was a problem, it had happened so quickly, that they weren't certain which way they had been sucked in. They needed to return to Berth 6, where the pipe was open to the 'habitat'. If they went the other way it ended at Berth 5, where the pipe was sealed.
While Christopher was sure they had come in from one direction, the other men believed it was the other way.
'Alright,' he told them. 'The majority wins at the end of the day,' and he went with what they told him. He knew, if they were wrong, he would die.
Yusuf and Kaz Jnr, the youngest of the group, were the most injured, and had to keep stopping for breaks, but for a while, they settled into a steady though agonising rhythm – and on the way Christopher came across another scuba tank, meaning they had two between them.
But then, they reached the end of the air pocket. They had to stop. Christopher, as the head of the human chain, took one of the oxygen tanks and pushed into the oily water to scout a route.
As HE went through, his heart sank. The water went on, and on, and on. He swam for four minutes until he accepted the terrible truth.
It was too far for his injured friends to swim, especially with two oxygen tanks between four.
Christopher returned, braced to tell them the news they feared – they couldn't all go on. 'Listen, I need to go and get help,' he said.
The two injured men pleaded with him not to go but Christopher and Fyzal knew he must – he had to go and get help. Kaz Jnr, one of Christopher's good friends, was terrified, and grabbed his foot, begging him not to go.
'I told them, 'Listen, I'm going to help. If I don't go, nobody might come. I need to reach outside, they come back in with a rope and some tanks',' Christopher said.
He had to go – he had to kick off Kaz Jnr's hand.
'I had to get out of here,' he said. 'I'll bring back-up. And the hardest, hardest thing I had to do was to kick off that man.'
He took one of the oxygen tanks and plunged into the water once more.
He swam as hard as he could, pushing on into the darkness, but soon his tank ran out of oxygen.
He was now holding his breath again. His lungs were bursting, his body screaming for air and he was just about to black out when, suddenly, he crashed into another oxygen tank that had been sucked into the pipe.
He grabbed at it, spat out a mouthful of oil, then managed to draw breath. He had been saved once more. Christopher pushed on and soon emerged into another air pocket.
As he did, he heard that Fyzal had followed him. But Christopher had no time to wait and waste oxygen, he had to push on.
Finally, he made it to the elbow of the pipeline. Now he knew he had to swim 60 feet to the surface – and just pray that he had gone in the right direction.
'I started to go up the pipe,' he said. 'Swimming, kicking and scraping the walls.'
The oil had made everything treacherous and slippery, but he managed to heave himself up.
Then he felt his head break the water's surface. His eyes squinted through burning oil but he could make out an opening – he had gone the right way.
He had listened to his friends and it had saved his life, now it was his turn to save theirs.
But while he could see the 'habitat' above him, now thankfully filled with air again, the water level was not quite high enough for him to be able to reach the lip of the sawn-off pipe where they had been doing the repairs, and haul himself up.
And there was no one there to help him. He reached around in the darkness and felt a chain hanging down. He grabbed it but couldn't pull himself out. He panicked. In desperation, he banged on the pipe, screaming, hoping anyone might hear him.
'I tried for maybe an hour, an hour and a half,' he said, 'I had no perception of time because I felt like I spent a whole day there. I started to bawl and cry. I ask the Lord why he bring me so far, and I can't come out.'
Then, barely audibly, he heard a voice. Shortly after, a light. He thought he had died and the figure was the devil.
It was another diver. Then a second came into the chamber. Together, they heaved Christopher out. One of them guided him through the bottom of the habitat, out into the sea, and swam him to the surface.
A crowd of people looked on, stunned, as his oily, half-dead figure was heaved onto the waiting boat. And he was telling everyone who would listen: 'The men are down there. Go and rescue them.'
He was so distraught about the promise he had made to his friends to get help, that he tried to go back down himself, but was restrained.
He was reassured they would do everything to rescue the men. After three days in intensive care, he got his phone back. And that's when he discovered the terrible truth: his friends hadn't joined him in hospital. They were still in the pipeline.
Their families had gathered at Paria's car park, furious, terrified, and demanding answers. But they didn't get any.
Instead after three days, they were told the men were dead and their bodies would now be deliberately flushed out of the line.
How did they get sucked into the pipeline? Why weren't they saved? Who sent armed coastguards to the head of the pipeline to ensure no further rescues could be made? And why has no one faced justice?
You will have to listen to our podcast to find out.
Paria insists it has good reasons for stopping rescuers from entering the pipe. In fact, it insists it did all it could for the men, although neither Paria nor the coastguard responded to our requests for comment.
For Christopher, not a day goes by when he doesn't think about those four men. While many of those in charge that day continue to live out their charmed lives in gated mansions, Christopher has been left so traumatised he is unable to work.
He and his wife, Candy Stoute-Boodram, 37, cannot afford to leave San Fernando, where he lives, reminded constantly of what happened. The last picture of him and his four friends alive before their final, tragic dive hangs on huge billboards throughout the town.
'I just replay this in my mind. What could I have done different so these people could have their loved ones with them?' he asked us.
'For only me to live? What gives me that right to live? That has been my question in my mind.'