The haunting words of the sole survivor who experienced a horrific diving accident that left him ‘trapped for 48 hours in a 30-inch pipe’ have been revealed.
Commercial diver Christopher Boodram was repairing an oil pipe in the Caribbean sea when disaster struck back in 2022.
The routine repair included four other divers and were located close to the surface when, without warning, they were sucked into a 30-inch wide pipe and dragged over 60ft down into the depths of the sea.
Incredibly all four men survived the event, with at least two suffering broken bones. But their plight was not over.
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They had stopped in a small air pocket and it was only when Boodram attempted to sit up and subsequently hit his head on the metal, that he realized where he was.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, he recalled: “I wasn't sure if I was alive or if this was hell. I was in pitch black, in pain, I could hear screams and bawling. If you read any biblical book and they explain hell to you, they will tell you that you’re on fire. My body was burning all over.”
Boodram knew that he needed to swim for help, with two of the men in the pipe being too injured to journey with him.
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However, not all of the men wanted Boodram to go.
He explained: “I told them, ‘listen, I’m going to help. If I don’t go, nobody might come. I need to reach outside, they come back in with a rope and some tanks’.”
Over the course of three hours, Boodram clawed his way alone through the pipe to reach the surface in search of help for the team.
Barely clinging onto life, he was rescued at the surface by divers where he begged them to send help for the other four men who were still alive inside the pipe.
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However, the Paria Fuel Trading Company, which is the Trinidadian state-owned oil firm that has control of the pipeline, refused to allow anyone to venture into the pipe on a rescue mission.
Instead, six days after the incident, the bodies of the men were flushed out to clear the pipe.
An autopsy later revealed that their deaths had been slow, with one of them thought to have survived up to 39 hours inside the cramped pipe.
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Speaking about the tragic event three years later, Boodram shared: “I just replay this in my mind. What could I have done different so these people could have their loved ones with them?
“For only me to live? What gives me that right to live? That has been my question in my mind.”