22-05-2025
EXCLUSIVE PIPELINE: My son spent his last moments gasping for air in an underwater oil pipe - this is my story
The Mail have launched a new six-part investigative podcast series into the 2022 Caribbean diving disaster.
This real-time investigation sees reporter Isabelle Stanley travel to Trinidad and Tobago to interview the victims' families and the tragedy's sole survivor.
Travelling to the nation for a first-of-its-kind investigation into the disaster, this explosive podcast will uncover a story of corporate negligence, betrayal, and greed. Listen here
The Tragedy
In February 2022, five men were sent to repair a leaking section of underwater pipe just off the coast of Trinidad.
What should have been a routine job for the experienced divers turned deadly when something went terribly wrong and, in less than a second, they were sucked inside the 30-inch pipe they were repairing.
Despite being dragged hundreds of feet through the pipe beneath the sea, the men survived the initial impact.
They were scattered throughout the pipe, but managed to group together, breathing in tiny pockets of air that had been sucked in with them.
One of the men, Christopher Boodram, managed to drag himself out over the course of three agonising hours, but attempts to rescue the other four were repeatedly blocked. They were left to die.
And they didn't die quickly. Autopsies later revealed that one of the divers, Kazim Ali Jr, may have been alive for as long as 39 hours inside the pipe
The tragedy sparked a national scandal in Trinidad, and billboards demanding justice still line street corners to this day.
A Father's Pain
In the first episode of Pipeline, Stanley spoke to the father of one of the divers, Kazim Ali Sr, who has spent the three years since the tragedy hunting for answers.
Kazim Ali Sr is in a uniquely terrible position. He not only lost his son in the tragedy -but he also owned the business that all the divers worked for, LMCS.
LMCS had been hired by Paria, the state-owned oil company, to repair the pipe.
'I think about it 25 hours a day', the grieving father told podcast host Stanley.
'It's never out of my mind. Learning he'd been alive for 39 hours, that was the killer.'
The first two episodes of Pipeline, explaining the tragedy, featuring exclusive interviews with the families of the victims and the sole survivor of the disaster, Christopher Boodram, are available now.
PIPELINE
The six-part podcast series will explore allegations that efforts to rescue the other four men were actively obstructed, and will unearth close connections between Trinidad's political elite and oil executives.
Travelling to the nation for a first-of-its-kind investigation into the disaster, this explosive podcast will uncover a story of corporate negligence, betrayal, and greed.
