The relatives of drowned diver Yusuf Henry did not mince words when they criticised the Paria Fuel Trading Company Ltd's response and management of the situation in the aftermath of his death on Tuesday.
Henry's sister Afeisha Henry, his mother Nicole Greenidge and 11-year-old daughter Aliyah Henry presented their statements during a hearing of the commission of enquiry into his death on Tuesday afternoon.
Henry together with Faizal Kurban, Rishi Nagassar and Kazim Ali Jr became trapped in a pipeline while doing maintenance works at Berth 6 of Paria's Pointe-a-Pierre facility last February.
The men died and their bodies were found days later.
Henry's relatives were the last witnesses to present statements for Tuesday's hearing.
Henry's sister in her statement recalled in detail the afternoon she heard that Henry was trapped and the challenges in receiving updates on rescue efforts for her brother and the other divers.
In her statement Henry described the initial meeting between the families and Paria officials including general manager Mushtaq Mohammed and engineer Michael Wei and slammed both officials.
"Tonnes of questions came from family members and Mr Mushtaq just kept smiling.
"Mr Wei wasn't very vocal in my opinion... but of course everyone left their even more annoyed than when we arrived due to the fact that Paria officials called us to give us what?
"A little bit of AC (air conditioning) and a room temperature bottle water?
"Because little to no information was shared.
"I felt that they could have sent that message with a security guard."
Henry added that she was even more annoyed when a Paria representative assigned to liaise with the family on rescue efforts asked for their e-mail addresses even after having their contact numbers for updates.
[caption id="attachment_995171" align="alignnone" width="999"] Nicole Greenidge, mother of late diver Yusuf Henry, testifies at the commission of enquiry into the Paria diving tragedy at the International Waterfront Complex, Port of Spain, on Tuesday. - SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]
"I became absolutely annoyed and responded with a very ugly message that e-mail and WhatsApp weren't that different. Why can't you just send the stuff here (WhatsApp) which she never responded to."
During her statement Greenidge also knocked Paria's response to the incident, citing instances where she felt the company had not adequately keep families updated with information.
"My family and I left Paria's carpark at around 10.30 pm on Sunday night.
"On Monday 28 we returned to the carpark at around 10 am, by this time my family never received a direct phone call that Paria changed the rescue to a recovery.
"I found it a bit disrespectful to the families as it was, in my opinion, a wrong-sided decision to have a media release before contacting the families. However, we just waited again in the carpark."
Henry's daughter's statement was read by attorney Prakash Ramadhar.
In her address Aliyah described the ordeal of coping with her father's death.
"I
