PARIA'S terminal operations manager Collin Piper says while he understands why rescue divers whose families were stuck in a 30-inch undersea pipeline were willing to risk their lives to try assisting, he made the "best" and "right" decision by not allowing them to do so as more lives could have been lost. In fact, he believes if he was stuck in that pipeline, he "would not want anybody to be so reckless" with the life of his family members by allowing them to enter.

Piper was testifying at the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) into the February 25 diving tragedy on Thursday afternoon.

Kazim Ali Jr, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry, Rishi Nagassar and Christopher Boodram were doing maintenance on a 30-inch pipeline at Berth 6, belonging to Paria Fuel Trading Co Ltd, Pointe-a-Pierre, but were sucked into the pipeline. Only Boodram survived.

There were LMCS rescue divers willing to enter the pipeline, including Michael Kurban who is the son of Fyzal Kurban but Piper instructed them not to enter as it was too risky.

In addition, the owner of LMCS, Kazim Ali, is the father of Kazim Ali Jr.

However, Michael Kurban initially disobeyed this order and entered, but was not able to get too far. He managed to retrieve a scuba tank which was blocking camera access inside the pipeline.

Piper maintained that stopping the rescue efforts by these divers was not an easy decision.

He was asked by attorney Nyree Alfonso, who represents the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union, if when he realised the camera – which, in the end, took five hours to get to the site – was taking too long to arrive, if he did not see the need to send rescue divers with the "appropriate equipment."

An emotional Piper said he was being asked the "same thing repeatedly.

"I had a decision to make. This was no simple time.

"We sit here in this room and we believe that this was just something that was not stressful...We believe in this room that this was not something (in which) we were under strain. We were under pressure, right? That is the furthest things from the truth."

He continued, "We can sit in this room and believe what we want to believe. But put yourself in that position on that night; on that evening. When you have to make a decision to send a man into a pipeline (that is) a quarter of a mile long, you have no idea where this man is going, you have no idea what this man is going to face, you have no idea..."

He said once permission is given to a rescue diver to enter a dangerous situation, "You are accountable for that man's life.

"If you believe that I just sat there and just decided I'm just not sending a man in a pipe, you simply do not understand what we went through that night. That is not something I want anybody in this room or anybody at all to have to go through and to make a decision."

He said it's not as simple as some attorneys were making it seem. As if all it took, was "sending a man and pulling him out with a rope."

As his voice