logo
EXCLUSIVE PIPELINE: Hear all the revelations from The Daily Mail's groundbreaking podcast investigating the 2022 Caribbean diving disaster

EXCLUSIVE PIPELINE: Hear all the revelations from The Daily Mail's groundbreaking podcast investigating the 2022 Caribbean diving disaster

Daily Mail​22-05-2025

Every Thursday, Mail reporter Isabelle Stanley will bring you all the revelations from her groundbreaking investigation into the Caribbean diving disaster - on brand new podcast series, Pipeline.
In February 2022, Kazim Ali Jr, Yusuf Henry, Fyzal Kurban, Rishi Nagassar, and Christopher Boodram were sent to fix an underwater oil pipeline just off the coast of Trinidad.
Just as they were about to finish, they were violently sucked into the 30-inch pipe they were repairing and dragged hundreds of feet beneath the sea.
The men were professional divers, working for a contractor commissioned by Paria Fuel Trading Company, one arm of Trinidad's state-owned oil company.
One man, Christopher Boodram, managed to drag himself out over the course of three agonizing hours, but attempts to rescue the other four were repeatedly blocked. They were left to die.
Trapped deep underwater, with tiny pockets of air, their autopsies revealed they didn't die quickly – one of the men may have been alive in those unimaginable conditions for up to 39 hours.
Travelling to Trinidad for a first-of-its-kind investigation into the disaster, this explosive real-time podcast will uncover a story of corporate negligence, betrayal, and greed.
The six-part series explores allegations that rescue efforts were actively obstructed, examines how safety failures were ignored, and unearths close connections between Trinidad's political elite and oil executives.
It will also feature an exclusive interview with the disaster's only survivor, Christopher Boodram, along with GoPro audio from inside the pipe, capturing the men's final, harrowing hours.
Pipeline, a Daily Mail podcast, is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all major podcast platforms now.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Teen girl testifies behind closed doors in Wander Franco trial in the Dominican Republic
Teen girl testifies behind closed doors in Wander Franco trial in the Dominican Republic

The Independent

timea day ago

  • The Independent

Teen girl testifies behind closed doors in Wander Franco trial in the Dominican Republic

Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco appeared in court Thursday in the Dominican Republic in a sexual abuse case involving a 14-year-old girl who testified behind closed doors. Prosecutors also privately disclosed audio and video related to the girl as evidence during the trial that began earlier this week. Franco's attorneys have argued that the evidence submitted by prosecutors has been manipulated and distorted. Little else was known about Thursday's proceedings because the press was not allowed in the courtroom for most of them. Franco, 24, faces charges of sexually abusing a minor, sexual and commercial exploitation against a minor, and human trafficking. He was having an All-Star season in 2023 before officials in the Dominican Republic began investigating allegations that he had been in relationship with a minor and had paid her mother some $17,000 for consent. The girl's mother was charged with money laundering and is under house arrest. Franco, who was charged in July 2024 and is on supervised release, could face up to 30 years in prison if found guilty. He is currently on Major League Baseball's restricted list after initially being placed on administrative leave. The trial is expected to continue on Friday.

UN food agency appeals for $46 million to help 2 million Haitians facing severe hunger
UN food agency appeals for $46 million to help 2 million Haitians facing severe hunger

The Independent

time2 days ago

  • The Independent

UN food agency appeals for $46 million to help 2 million Haitians facing severe hunger

The U.N. food agency is appealing for $46 million for the next six months to help about 2 million Haitians in dire need of food, including 8,500 at the worst catastrophic level of hunger. The appeal was issued by Lola Castro, the World Food Program's regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, who recently returned from Haiti, where escalating gang violence has displaced well over 1 million people and left half the population — 5.7 million people — in urgent need of food. Two million of them are in the two worst categories in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading international authority on hunger crises, and 8,500 are in the worst Phase 5 category, she said. That means at least one in five people or households severely lack food and face starvation and destitution. Haiti is one of only five countries in the world that have people in the Phase 5 category of catastrophic hunger, Castro said, 'and it is really dramatic to have this in the Western Hemisphere.' Gangs have grown in power since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021 and are now estimated to control 85% of the capital and are moving into surrounding areas. Haiti has not had a president since the assassination, and the top U.N. official in the country said in April the country could face 'total chaos' without funding to confront the gangs.. A U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police arrived in Haiti last year to help quell gang violence, but the mission remains understaffed and underfunded, with only about 40% of the 2,500 personnel originally envisioned. The WFP, the world's largest humanitarian organization, is among the U.N. agencies facing funding cuts, mainly from the United States, which provided nearly half of its funding in 2024. Castro said WFP reached over 1.3 million people this year until March using carryover funds from last year. But the agency is facing a dramatic situation now with food stocks only until July to assist with emergencies, new displacements or hurricanes, she said. In the past four years, Castro said WFP always had stocks to help between 250,000 and 500,000 people with any emergency. 'This year, we start the hurricane season with an empty warehouse where we have no stocks for assisting any emergency, or we have no cash neither to go and buy (food) locally if it was possible in some areas, or to do a rapid humanitarian response,' Castro said. 'We are very concerned that a single storm can put hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti again into humanitarian catastrophe and hunger.' WFP normally provides a meal every day for around 500,000 school children, but that number will be cut in half without additional resources, she told a video press conference on Tuesday. With $46 million, she said, WFP will be able to help the 2 million Haitians in most need of food, keep providing school meals for half a million children, and provide social protection for very vulnerable people in camps for the displaced. Haiti must not be forgotten as the world deals with other crises, Castro said, urging donors to be generous. 'We really need to stop this and to hold the line on hunger,' she said. 'We continue calling the humanitarian community to provide support.' With $46 million, she said, WFP will be able to help the 2 million Haitians in the two worst IPC categories, keep providing school meals for half a million children, and provide social protection for very vulnerable people in camps for the displaced.

EXCLUSIVE PIPELINE: 'It took the people's breath away' - Top barrister remembers shocking moment oil company claimed failed efforts to rescue men trapped for days inside underwater pipe were 'excellent'
EXCLUSIVE PIPELINE: 'It took the people's breath away' - Top barrister remembers shocking moment oil company claimed failed efforts to rescue men trapped for days inside underwater pipe were 'excellent'

Daily Mail​

time2 days ago

  • Daily Mail​

EXCLUSIVE PIPELINE: 'It took the people's breath away' - Top barrister remembers shocking moment oil company claimed failed efforts to rescue men trapped for days inside underwater pipe were 'excellent'

On the latest episode of the Daily Mail's Pipeline podcast, reporter Isabelle Stanley interviews witnesses, diving experts, and lawyers involved in the official enquiry into the Caribbean diving disaster. In February 2022, five divers were sucked into a 30-inch pipe they were repairing off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago. Despite one of the divers, Christopher Boodram, escaping after an unimaginable three-hour ordeal, rescue attempts for the remaining four were repeatedly blocked, leaving them to die slowly in what became a national scandal. The pipe was managed by Paria, one arm of Trinidad's state-owned oil company. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Trinidad's then-Energy Minister Stuart Young launched an official enquiry, led by one of the UK's top international criminal barristers, Jerome Lynch KC. Speaking to the podcast, Lynch remembered his shock when Michael Wei, Paria's Technical Maintenance Manager who acted as Logistics Chief during the incident, sensationally claimed efforts to rescue the men were 'excellent'. Previous episodes heard how the oil company blocked a team of experienced volunteer divers, who were willing to risk their lives to save the men, from entering the pipe. The Enquiry established that Paria's Incident Commander, Collin Piper, obsessed about getting a camera into the pipe to assess the conditions inside and – despite claiming to take advice from expert divers on site – did not speak to one waiting professional until after 9.30pm, while another dive company waited for eight hours with no one from Paria speaking to them at all. Autopsies would later reveal that one of the four men trapped inside the pipe may have been alive for up to 39 hours. 'It took people's breath away', Lynch said on Wei's testimony. 'It was just an unbelievable moment. Somebody responsible for trying to rescue these men had completely failed to understand what they had achieved was essentially nothing. 'That moment told you everything you needed to know about the attitude the management of Paria had taken.' Now that proceedings have concluded, Stanley asked Lynch where he believes fault lies for the tragedy, three years after he oversaw the enquiry. 'It was the failure of a whole series of people', the barrister said. 'I do have a certain sympathy with an approach in which the company might have taken time to justify risking anybody going into that pipe when they didn't even know for a 100 percent that they were in there and that they were alive. 'But once Christopher came out of that pipe, two and a half hours or so later, they knew for sure that they were in the pipe and they knew for sure that they were alive.' 'I think Paria didn't expect anything like this to happen. They were completely paralysed and, in one sense, it was easier to do nothing than to risk anybody else's life. 'But there were those who were prepared to risk their lives to rescue them. I just don't get it – why wouldn't you have facilitated a way in which something could be done? 'To me, it is unforgivable that no real attempt was made to rescue those men.' Almost a year after the enquiry finished, Lynch produced a 380 page report into the disaster. He found that Paria had effectively prevented efforts to rescue the trapped divers, concluding that their action on that day could be characterised as gross negligence. Lynch urged Trinidad's Director of Public Prosecutions to consider charging Paria with corporate manslaughter.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store