CHRISTOPHER BOODRAM, the sole survivor in the Paria tragedy which claimed the lives of four divers, on Tuesday gave a harrowing account of being sucked into an undersea oil pipeline before escaping.

"I did not know if I was in heaven or hell, or in a pipe," Boodram said at the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) at the International Waterfront Centre, Port of Spain.

He wept openly at times as he spoke. Chairman Jerome Lynch, KC, allowed him to step outside briefly to compose himself. He summed up his experience inside the pipeline as “an unbelievable nightmare.”

Divers Fyzal Kurban, Kazim Ali Jr, Rishi Nagassar, Yusuf Henry and Boodram were sucked into a 30-inch pipeline at Pointe-a-Pierre on the compound of Paria Fuel Trading Co Ltd on February 25.

[caption id="attachment_987083" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Christopher Boodram testifies that he felt there was no attempt him and his colleagues who were sucked into the 30-inch subsea pipeline. - SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]

While Boodram couldn't get rescuers to his trapped colleagues as he had promised, his fellow divers had saved his life by directing him to the open berth six, not the sealed berth five.

"If they didn't know which direction to go in, I'd be dead today," he attested of Ali, Kurban and Henry.

Boodram complained of no rescue efforts to save his colleagues. He said upon emerging from the pipeline, he couldn't access a decompression unit and relied on his wife for a salve to clean oil from his sinuses.

He felt his life under threat in a covid19 isolation ward, even though he was covid-free, next to a woman who died shortly after he was placed there.

Boodram disputed Paria manager Collin Piper's evidential claim that Boodram had said the trapped men were already dead.

"I would not say something like that. Why would I call Mr Piper to say I think them fellars dead?"

He recalled the incident of a their work chamber ("the habitat") suddenly filling with water.

"I said, 'Let's get out of here.’"

Jumping into the sea, he was spun rapidly as if in a tornado, beating up his body.

"It happened so fast."

In a foetal position, he was pulled through the pipeline at "unbelievable speeds," debris hitting him.

Boodram had to hold his breath so long his lungs made gasping noises, which he hauntingly replicated for the CoE.

"I said, 'God, I'm coming. Ma, look for me.

"I was in a state of panic. I was not sure if I was dead. I was not sure if I was alive."

He heard the other divers, asking, "Kazim, you all right?". He said Ali replied, "No. I in real pain. I mash up bad."

[caption id="attachment_987084" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Commission of enquiry chairman Jerome Lynch, KC. - SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]

Henry said, "My foot break."

Boodram recalled, "I said ‘no, we're not going to die. We're coming out of here, boy. We have to get out of this. God is good.’"

Boodram said the men formed a chain, pulling and pushing each other along the pipeline.

"Inside there was like an unbelievable nightmare. Your eyes burning. Every time