The Paria Incident | Chapter 2 of 2

0:00 Kay tapes from the Dark Side contains descriptions of violence and sexuality. Listener discretion is advised. It said no weight from an hour with but I can't. I need to go, and did you? I did? And as I go may be able to for this one. Because it was a short distance, I could judge that there was maybe around the tito for defeat or what I may felt. That's the forf No.

0:40 One's going to hold you to, mister Pegrammer, I understand, but anyway you felt, it was a lot shorter from from the. Ben, and I feel it. Ben pause. Because now I'm going to unface either death or life, right, because remember I still no show if are going to five or sixty. And right, so it's either light above you or not. I make up my mind to die for the third time. And I went up. For the third time today Christopher prepares himself to meet death.

1:20 Take the tank and I went. I find yellow, and I find yellow. I still alone the tank because so much in fear of that being a blank and I may have to traverse back. So when I find that tank, I was stealing. Okay, well I have a next tank. This this might be a lifeline in case that goes up day. So I grabbed the next tank and I went up. This is the third tank that Christopher finds, and he takes it up to the top just in case it's a dead And. Did you see daylight?

2:03 Inside? It was pitch black? All right? I feel like if I could give up. When I reached up there and I see nobody inside it. No, none, none. Of my none of my I would call him family was inside. The waiting and you text no rescue diver. No, nobody was inside the chamber. When I see that, I wasn't sure if I was living still because it was so unbelievable to know this happened and nobody here to assists me. Nobody. I didn't see nobody inside the pipe trying their rescue. Nothing.

2:43 Every time I opened my eyes and I can see anything. And I started feeling around, and I felt that change for money. Chain block was hanging inside the pipe, was hanging inside the pipe. I used that and I wrap up my right and on it. Yes, well, and I said, all right, Chris, we gotta try trying to climb out. Several times I realized I couldn't climb out. I couldn't wage myself in the pipe was too small to try to wearge yourself in the pipe to climb up, and it was too slippery. It was like about four to five feet floating. Any water it would reached me around the eye and me kicking and swimming tadn't know what.

3:25 But could you see the top. Of the part right, And that was like out of your reach, out of my reach, like the ceiling here, not that high, not even that high, no, not that just. Barely out of my reach, just barely. Understanding frustration, I can't to reach this far and can't. Come out and hold onto the chain. And I tried to pull up, and I'm forcing this arm. To give me some string to try to hold on. I I made three. Or four attempts and on a hold on and this nim getting strained and give. Up on myself every time. I'm falling back now, so I had no strength to pull myself out of it.

4:11 I take the chain, I make her not on the chain with my right hand. I put my foot foot in it, and I'm trying to pull up on it now and after all the attempts, are trying to climb up without doing that, like nobody know. It's too weak to actually put myself up. You know. So from there the only thing. I realized I could do now is just boil and call and pray somebody upside there, somebody I just hope outside on fire, Hope somebody actually. Care, you know, the rescue.

4:51 I wrapped the the hook, the on the chain, the next end of the chain. On my hand here. So when I was plunging on the and bawling and crying and bawling, help me, and and polling, and then and between that year knock after year, I knock and knock it back once. Then the person like they hear knock, and then to dong dong, them back to dot dong so they could understand that this is not just not something swinging, is somebody actually selling your signal.

5:31 Reacting to the knocks, rather than just something he is hanging. I got you. And then I started to hear our little sign up. Bawling like how many caroly here. Distinctively waited, But I understand that all right, they're hearing me, and a hold on there their life, feeling the fiend, feeling the black oat, totally exhosted. And then all of a sudden, I just see a light because if you know. And again I'm pulling on a reason as father could reason and get a little peep. But I can't sit down.

6:11 I just seen a little ovady and I started to see you, a little light shadowing. Any any. Habitat, any habitat. Yeah, I swear to God it was in jely that coming from it. I tell myself, this is a dizzy light that the people I'll be talking about coming like, I swear this was that coming from it. Christopher sees a light and he swears to God it was the Angel of Death. We'll be right back after a quick break. If you want to skip the ads and support the show, go to patreon dot com slash tapes from the dark Side.

7:00 Mm hmmm. One person coming in the chamber. Now I know Ranal Ramuta personally, he being a man taught to me and diving. He is my neighbor. I grew up underneath him and I did not recognize him. He had an hoody crabby. All I seen is just like a lighted image when I see my jets back in the pipe, and I started like woody chain because I'm fright and. Not knowing what is this? Like, who's Who's let me say by me, But I said why me?

7:43 Who? Why? I mean who? Why? Sally? You? Sally that you by? He said yes? Take said by when I get out, please say yeah? Well yeah, by and need try pulling him up once or twice, but yeahlone couldn't bring him out because he had the pipe. He didn't not much force some his side because you know two to need that. And also. I don't care to go and get help, so of course don't leave, man. I had to go and help and come back by.

8:24 A man named Roy finds Christopher at the top of the pipe and he tries to pull him up, but Roly is not strong enough to complete the task all by himself, so he leaves to find help and return. Boy, don't leave me, but I don't know how long I can rule on you. I gave as I tell him that, he said, look for you, come in car you sorright, Corey said Corey, say yeah, by Christmas? Game out, Diana, Well I was by game out Ayana, sorry goryoule man. Roley returns with a man named Corey, and together they will try to bring Christopher to safety, but.

9:06 Really help and me trying to webout strength iad left pulled me out and the pipe really asked me for all right? Say yeah, says he not too far by I fight you not too far. Corey and Rolly finally pulled Christopher out to safety, and Chris right away is worried about his friends. Phizi first because fires was not that far behind. Pulls it from minute. Were you telling them that they were alive still when you left them? Yes? Thanks telling Rolide really the first puss and he had run around. That was the first puss, and alongside Corey because when he came in he asked me, say one time follow us with but I know also.

9:55 Fighting not too far from my wife. Everybody don't know right well, I'll go for them now you say, yeah, well you just wait and for equipment by. Mister Bam. What we're going to do is have a short break. All right. We're gonna take a little break now. Just have a cup of tea or something. Someone will look after you, all right, and we're resuming about twenty minutes, all right, twenty two please twenty to twelve. Take your time, and then we're going to deal with the second phase. All right, Let mister Maharad deal with the second phrase. But I'm really grateful for your evidence so far. Right, just you take take take it for twenty minutes. All right, thank you very much.

10:37 You rise. Now there's a break in the proceedings, and when they resume, they begin discussion of what happened to Christopher after he had emerged from the pipeline. Before I are you Jody jim ikim Oi habitat. I asked Cory to find out from Andrew Fara how long I was down therefore, because as a diver, overstaying your time could lead to decompression sickness. And do I need uh decompression chamber? Corey came back told me, and you say come out. I see how long he just said come out? I say, go and ask him again if I need to go into a chamber. I work so hard to reach out here and then reach on the top of the surface and have decompression sickness.

11:42 He went back and too far. I told him a good come out. Chris is cleared for decompression sickness, and so he swims up from the chamber to the surface. At the surface is where he sees Nicholas curb On fis all Curbon's son. As as they pull him up on the boarth. My eyes fell on Nicholas Courban. I see Nicholas Coroban. I said, Nicholas, go and save your father. Go and save your father. You're not fathom your idea, and go and save your father. And Nicholas said all right. And Nicholas is a diver. I don't know.

12:23 Back now I tell him, I say about them fellas in there, look, go and save them. I k go and save them. And he was like, all right, all right, but you relax, you relax, I said, but relax to what better? Let me go back and save them. And because I want to do that, and you say, hey, relax yourself. You in shock. I said nothing, shock, then fellas down ley way, let me get him. Christopher then addresses Michael Kurban, another one of Izo's sons and a competent diver. I said, Michael, go and save your father. And Michael say, all right, and you start the place back on fourth, on on on the on, on the habitat, on top of the habitat, and I was like, oh, my quantive, yeah, I use some profanities your father, no, why no? And then you run off the the thing.

13:17 At the same time, the chance on me. Don't want the chance on me from one of them. Both to the other. Okay, I know, difficult to remember everything, but the transferred you. Did anyone take you to any decompression unit that afternoon? No, boy, no, nobody didn't. I felt like nobody kid. For me or. My diving bodies. Nobody will be right back after a quick commercial break. Don't go anywhere.

13:58 Right when when it take me and they put me on the booth, I let him know. I say, hey, cut off this wet suit, off farm and check the sea for the scene. Any wounds, any lacerations, anything, any blood, anything bleeding because my body, no, I don't know, and if I seen it, I had to stop the bleeding. I can. I don't know. Right after the cut open you wed suit didn't see nothing. I believe it was either a Pario official or Kenson official. Somebody within Pario organization assisted with cutting audium the wed too. I said, I'll check my head, look on naddi oil look good to see or less? You know? No, bos said no nothing else bleeding, check good, check good, and they checked this, say now you good.

14:44 Aside from the initial delta piece situation that led to the whole catastrophe in the first place. This seems to be the second point of failure during the rescue operation. Here is what we know. There was some sort of security camera in the bar that was monitoring the men that cut out when the delta piece situation occurred, and it took three hours for men to arrive to help. That's when Christopher was initially pulled to safety. Ideally, there would have been a team ready to dive into the pipe to rescue the remaining men, and we do know that Michael and Nicholas Kurbun were there and they would attempt some kind of dive mission, but they didn't have all the necessary gear yet, so there was a further delay.

15:30 We'll get into that later. It's also a peculiar that Pariah didn't have anyone there to gather information from Christopher that might serve them in helping during a rescue mission. Christopher says he remembers there maybe being one Pariah official there who helped cut off his wet suit, but the man didn't really ask him any questions. There really was no debrief that occurred, and. Guys on the top of it. Because at this nor rescue at them for me though I felt no rescue attempt. Mister drama, I want to ask you a very important question. If when you were rescued, either Parrio or LMCS wanted to find out from you the condition in the pipe.

16:17 In order to effect a rescue. Would were you in a position to tell them what the condition of the pipeline was? While when I know COMMODI pipe, my mind and everything was focused on tuning to everything to save them for us if they had the briefing. There and then everything that could I give from including the condition in the pipe, everything I could tell them. Why if you were in. The pipeline and you were coming out, and you had promised the men that they would be rescued, did you see anything in that pipeline during the time you were in that pipeline to obstruct to anyone from coming into that pipeline to rescue the man?

17:04 Is not anything to help struck them? How I come up? How I come up? This marks the end of Christopher's testimony and they go to an open Q and A one of the reporters asked the first question to definitively clarify whether there was any attempt by Pariah to debrief Christopher after he emerge from the pipeline. What I want to ask a ten is really when you came out and he puts down what else ms or Pario attempted to get a debrief of what happened in the pipeline. That's one I was. I was. I didn't want to leave the side. I'm begin to stelf let me come back for you man and of himself. I don't know that.

17:52 I'm I'm sure if I didn't come up at least. A percent, nobody can't tell me about all that ship about carrys cute people eye diving up pipe before at that point inside the rise on same bird sixth, I went inside that on a piperself, call him piper. I went in that and put in I saw a paper gasket because you couldn't stall it from the outside because you sud just slamming against it. I went in the five on that school myself. But you're talking all talking about scuba and scuba score for ever, all every diving in there, scuba, every company coming there was scuba for all the years.

18:43 Can you help me this please? And follows on from what mister Wilson was saying, when when you were being ferried in the ambulance to go to hospital. Right, did anybody accompany you in the ambulance? Was there anybody from Pario or no? Lmcs had less chickens over it. Here's a curious part of the whole incident. We know there was no attempt made to debrief Christopher, but Pariah claims they got him on a conference call later that night, and that Chris said something along the lines of quote, I want to say up front, I ain't think them fellas make it. Pariah would later use these words to justify no rescue attempts being made. But Christopher disputes ever saying these words, and in fact disputes ever being on that call in the first place.

19:43 Do you remember if you were. Put on a call. With mister Colin Piper, a man called Randolph Archbold and uh Bush Tach Mohammad. Do you know if you were put on a phone call with them later that night? I have no recollections. Anybody, only other than Randy for the ambulance, and said. My wife, and my wife was filtering phone.

20:24 Calls also while I was in the hospital, because a lot that media people. And I said, of course, of course, but you have no recollection of having a conversation at about ten o'clock, and I very very much don't. I would see that them fellas die because I come out and I tell everybody there was living in front that I do have. Nobody could deny that I said everybody was living was the. It could act the whole hospital staff. Because don't throw this whole PERI are just breaking on the hospital. Anyone a read doctors who see about me, they will tell you anyone as everybody there what.

21:06 They want to do. Drama. I think everybody everybody accepts that you made that clear. I want to read something that mister Piper said in a conversation. He said he had with you a paragraph one thirty one of the witness Statement Spondor at page one three six eight. I asked Budram how he was doing. Mister Budram responded by saying, mister Piper, I want to say up front, I hinting them fellas make it or words to that effect. The phone was placed on speaker phone mode and mister Budram's words were audible to persons are wrong. Did you did you tell mister Piper that.

21:55 I did not? So specifically, you didn't tell mister piper. Mister, I want to say upfront, I hateing them fellas. Make it that I'm makeing sense, mister rahmish. Okay, now why are we just call pie pipe and say just. So hey upfront by them fellas? Dead boy? Are we trying to say? I say, okay, all right, I want to ask you another question now. The last question from council, I think is an interesting one. Would Christopher have chosen to go back in the pipeline, knowing what he knows? Now, if that was an. Option, We'll be right back after a quick commercial break.

22:37 Don't go anywhere. From what you saw in that pipeline. Would you have gone into the pipeline to rescue them? Yes? And I will tell this from my experience, even if I was not in this situation, and I was a diver outsidey situation in sidy pipeline. Let's see for then, out Siety pipeplane. Insidey pipeline, there is no predators, there is no currents, there is nothing to fall on your inside a pipeline.

23:19 Christopher Boudraum escaped the pipeline and made it to safety. This much we know. But what would be the fate of his four friends Kazim Ali, Rishi Nagaser, Yusuf Henry and Faizo Kurban. Let's run through a brief timeline, A short recap what do we know so far? February twenty fifth, twenty twenty two, at two fifteen pm, five divers entered the chamber. Exactly thirty minutes later, at two forty five pm, LMCS diver Andrew Ferra was informed that the visual camera was non functional in the chamber. Later that day, Pariah said that during an exercise, an incident occurred which resulted in quote loss of sight unquote of the five member team who were being quote monitored from shore end quote. Pariah said that incident management protocols were triggered and one member was rescued.

24:19 The next day, on February twenty six, Pariah issued another update, this time at three pm. This means the men had been in the pipeline over twenty four hours. Families of the divers gathered outside the facility asking for answers, and they set up a temporary station near Pariah's car park facility under a bus shed. This update, again was rather non substantial, containing minimal information about the diver's safety, and if there was any rescue operation being carried out. The next day, February twenty seventh, at twelve thirty pm, after the men had been in the pipeline forty five hours, PARIAH said that rescue efforts were ongoing. And then finally, at seven thirty pm that night, after the men had been in the pipeline well over forty eight hours, PARIAH held a press conference in which they indicated that this was no longer a rescue operation and was now a recovery exercise. The frustration of the public during this press conference is palpable. The families were furious had rescue attempts actually occurred? Why were the families not notified in the days earlier of these rescue missions if they were made.

25:32 We actually have footage of this very press conference. Audio quality is spotty at times, and I'm going to again try to translate when necessary. Five divers when missing last week Friday, one was since rescued and Paria is calling its fist press conference since that time to address public concerns. At the head table right now you're seeing on your left is mister mush Stock Mohammed, general manager at Paria Center. Mister Newman George, Chairman of PARIA, and to the right is mister Colin Piper. He is the terminal operations Manager and incident Commander at PARIA.

26:13 I would like to express condolences to the families of mister Faisal Kovan, mister Rishi Avisa, mister yuself, Henry, mister. I would like to hand you over now to. Aria's General Manager, mister Mushtak Mohammad. That was Colin Piper, operations manager and incident commander. Some would come to blame Colin Piper directly for the lack of an attempt to rescue. Name to the press and age in public. Following on from what Colin just described, Aria is correctly moving from a rescue operation to our recovery operation.

27:05 And this is based on the. Available expert advice from E Trailer to being a coast guard and a number of commercial diving experts that were consulted. Based on all the information we had, the probability of survival was very low and your risk of rescue was high or intolerable. This decision was not an easy decision and it was made in consultation with all of our stakeholders. The incident management team including our contractor LMCS, the Coast Guards, diving experts, engineering experts, and Parrier's engineering team. The decision was made after careful consideration to two key factors, number one being the extremely low likelihood of survival and number two being the risk of pacing human life in danger infurence of a rescue objective. Our focus now is to treat these bodies with respect during the process of recovery and to return them to their loved ones.

28:31 The question then becomes, when was the decision made to not even attempt to rescue? When was a dictamin that this would now be a recovery mission and not one of rescue. When was that dicumen That decision was made this afternoon in conjunction with our contractors, with our experts from the commercial diving fertility and with the in part of the trying to be who goest guard. Mister moment, what I mean is when was the determined that the men were no longer alive and you all could not go into rescue and instead going to recover bodies.

29:15 We can we can't answer the question of when it was determined whether the man was alive? What we what we are saying is that. At this time, based on all the advice we have we have gotten, the likelihood of survival is extremely low and the risk of human rescue to the pipeline is extremely high. We'll be right back after a quick commercial break. Don't go anywhere. There is an. Up country outrage. Tonight three days later, you are coming with this first conference.

29:58 Why wasn't something done, you know, when there were relatives who went in within an hour or two to save one of the men, and nothing done since that to possibly go in. Even relatives have been saying that they've been volunteering. Why hasn't there been a mission out there outside. Of that. Today? As we said earlier, the issue that we have been trying to understand and walk along is understand the condition between the pipeline before placing any further person in danger. By entering into that pipeline.

30:40 During the time we have spent and used various technologies to get into that pipeline, to understand and determine what were the conditions so we could have felt that it was safe enough to put another person in harms way. In a rescue situation. Come on gathering all that data and having discussions, But the best experts we have in country, including the Course Guard. It was determined that that risk of selling divers into that pipeline was intolerable. Well, hear from this family member who volunteered to go on a rescue mission. But first let's hear one last question from the press conference.

31:26 I just want to find out you spoke about the low probability of persons being alive inside the pipeline and basically advice you see. Is it that you're saying that there's no concrete evidence that has come forward that these men are lives still and we have. No concrete evidence to make that conclusion. At this time. This man claims to be Phizi's son. That's fisl Kurban, one of the men who died in the pipeline, and he recorded this video at an informal press conference on February twenty eighth, one day after the conference that we just heard clips from.

32:08 I was called an hour after my brother called me. He said, everybody's shaking on the badge and nobody know what to do. I got my two of my divers and we came to the rescue. When we went Reach Outside, Reach Outside. About half an hour after that, pour reorganized to dive and re checked the hed the chamber. We noticed that it didn't hurt nobody inside. The other thing is that one of the divers was on the tip top. Of your eyes.

32:48 I would askis the poe banging on the bie Nobody after OHI banging on our inside. Nobody to rescue only when me and my divers came. We rescue him. When we rescue him, he told me my father is right behind him. Go down for your father. It took me about fifteen minutes to organize McGear to go to honeypipe. He said, it took me fifty minutes to organize my gear to go down in the pipe. I swim the honey pipe about seventy feet down. I did not locate him. I located dip up. After we came back up, we told him that we didn't find nobody else, so we had to try a different alternative.

33:39 When we came back, the manager, so called manager, said, do not dive into the pipeline again. And I asked, who is the manager, Sarah. Nobody didn't want to say the name, but I would say the name because this man Colin Piper, Colin Pipe. Right, tell my man. Right, Colin Piper is a man we heard from just briefly during the press conference earlier held by Pariah the day before. Colin was the operations manager and incident commander.

34:20 We still had time to save them, guys, still have time. But you know what the orders they get. The orders they get was a plug the flange and block the divers from surface and back up where we were rescue the firstman. Why would that order? Why would you give an order like that. And block the only entrance the fellaws know the surface for help, right, and I told them, do not block it. Let me send a commercial divedom with. The proper lifeline and learry rescue them. Guys again, the managers is once Lemisie dive exspoots, Lemisie dive exspoot.

35:03 Yeah. I don't know what kind of brain sales this man have, right, we was doing your writing. Oh could you close out entrance where the men could possibly raise and survival, we could die and rescue them. You shouldn't do that, right, all this bullshit, all this talk you're talking in the press conference, Try not to cover up your trucks, Planner, because you're not covering up your trucks. Your eye murderer in my eyes. For obvious reasons, this case became a global phenomenon, spectacle who was picked up by media outlets all over the world, and there began to be a growing international pressure as well as local pressure to figure out exactly what happened and why there was no rescue attempt made. This resulted in the inquiry we are heard extensive clips from in which Christopher Boudram testified, but it also resulted in a five hundred and twenty page document being produced that extensively broke down the events of that day. We have access to this document and we'll review exactly what happened in the aftermath of the Pariah Delta P event right after a quick break. The five hundred and twenty page document

36:34 has almost every single piece of information you could imagine, and for that reason it is rather cumbersome. What I want to attempt to do is to highlight the most important entries, to try to get at the heart of where the communication breakdown happened. Essentially, our question is this, if there were willing divers and there were four men still trapped, why were there no rescue dive attempts made? What happened I'm going to read the following timeline out in military time, because that's how it appears in the document. Of course, if you want to translate, you just subtract twelve. At fourteen fifteen hours, five divers entered the chamber, Kazim Ali, Rishi, Nagasar, Yusef, Henry Faisal Kurban, and Christopher Boudram. Thirty minutes later, at fourteen forty five hours, LMCS diver Andrew Farra was informed that the visual camera is non functional. Andrew Farah also said there was no sign of divers or cylinders in the chamber. At fifteen hundred and eighteen hours, A Richardson informed of emergency and responded to the tug landing. At fifteen forty hours, the Coastguard was informed. At sixteen forty eight hours, a man named Ramkusoon reported hearing divers knocking on the pipe. At seventeen forty five hours, Colin Piper informed the ICP that one person was rescued and was

38:04 being brought to shore. LMCS diver Michael Kurbun had brought him up. If we do the math, that means that Chris had been in the pipeline for three hours At eighteen hundred hours, diver Michael Kurbun recovered the go pro camera and cylinder from the pipe. At eighteen oh three hours, Christopher Boudrum was confirmed by LMCS as the first person rescued. At eighteen eighteen hours, Colin Piper requested breathing air in four other personnel. At eighteen thirty one hours, ifs fire personnel said one diver will be deployed. At eighteen fifty five hours. Divers and diving equipment arrived on site. At nineteen fifty nine hours, About four hours after the incident, there was a faint knocking sound heard ever so often and it was reported via radio personnel. At twenty fifty three hours, there was an update on Christopher Boudram. He was reported in stable condition. At twenty one three hours, TTCG Lieutenant Hargreaves asked Colin Piper if there was another option besides sending TTCG divers down into the pipe to perform the rescue, as he doesn't think it's safe to send a diver down. He asked Colin Piper to provide other recommendations and options. Three minutes later, at twenty one six hours, in discussion with Kasim Ali, Senior Kathleen Balkisen

39:34 and the PFTC team. A decision was taken to install a riser school at birth number six to bring the end above water to atmosphere and therefore remove the flange on the riser at birth number five. At twenty one fifty eight hours, patient Christopher Budram was interviewed by telephone, providing information to the ICT. This is the interview that we heard. Disputed by Christopher. He says it never happened. At twenty two thirty eight hours, ITCG Lieutenant Hargreaves contacted the ICT to discuss a way forward. They said they'll discuss with the senior person and get back to the ic.

40:14 ICT asked that his decision be made as soon as possible. At twenty three fifty hours, just before midnight, ITCG Lieutenant Hargraves informed the ic that they will not dive. At this point, our four men would have been inside the pipeline for nine hours. At twenty four hundred hours, HSSL confirmed they will not perform a rescue, and at zero hours and fifty six minutes, Ralph Seals indicated to the ICP that no divers were willing to perform a dive if two of Faisal Kurban's sons had both volunteered to make a rescue attempt. And we also had Christopher Boudram state that he himself would have attempted a rescue dive if he had been allowed. And how is it possible that this Rolf Seals fellow said that there were no divers willing to perform a dive. Who is Rolf Seals and what do we know about him? Ralph Seals was a diving operations supervisor at Heritage Pariah Fuel Trading Company Limited, sister company, and he reported that he was not informed that four men were trapped in the Pariah pipeline until hours after he arrived at the accident scene on February twenty fifth. Seals had been instructed to report to Pariah after the incident had occurred. Seals stated that his role at the site was to coordinate the various dive crews that were involved in the rescue, not to actually prepare

41:46 a rescue plan or risk assessment for the men. But we know now that Pariah's attorney, Gilbert Peterson strongly challenged Seal's statements, asserting that this was not true. Peterson countered Seal's claim by citing the evidence of Heritage Operations HSSEE manager, who had testified that Seals was properly briefed about the incident upon his arrival at Pariah around nine PM. A man named Fleming Holder, during his testimony, repeatedly stated that he instructed Seals to prepare a risk assessment for the rescue. This fleming Holder stated that he and Seals began preparing a risk assessment shortly after nine PM, which they typed on his laptop and collaborated on for nearly forty minutes.

42:30 By eleven PM, he had seen two separate videos displaying an air tank obstructing the pipeline's interior. They were able to see this from cameras that they had sent down into the pipeline. Fleming Holder estimated the men could have survived for approximately six hours inside the pipeline, which means that by eleven PM they would have been out of air. Fleming Holder also said that a crawler was deployed into the pipeline to attempt to dislodge the air tank, but this effort was unsuccessful. Flemingholder was repeatedly questioned about the rescue attempts, but insisted that he only would authorize a rescue if it was safe and there was a guarantee that the rescuer would survive. But we now know it seems like an incorrect belief that the air tank could block the pipeline. We heard Christopher testify there was enough room to move through the pipeline and also pass an air tank back and forth. So again, if there had been someone to debrief Christopher after he came out of the pipeline, or perhaps even keep him updated on the thought process of the rescue mission, then crucial information might have not been discarded. So where are we today?

43:42 We'll be right back after a quick break. If you want to skip the ads and support the show, go to patreon dot com slash Tapes from the Dark Side. So where are we today? Well, we've had a couple of updates over the years, one coming in December of twenty twenty two when Pariah got a tongue lashing from the Commission of Inquiry chair. The man we've heard speak with the British accent throughout some of this testimony, his name is Jerome Lynch. He was upset about the late submission of documents and said that hundreds of pages of documents were submitted by Pariah over the weekend and as late as four am, and these documents had been asked for for months. They included notes from the incident command team the ICT. Jerome said, quote, it.

44:40 Is inconceivable that those who are responsible for providing material to this inquiry could have not appreciated that this material was likely to be relevant. We get it this weekend, notwithstanding that we have asked for it before on numerous occasions. It may be that, for some reason or other, people thought this was going to be an inquiry that was conducted at a leisurely pace over several years. Well, that's not what's happening. It's never what was happening, which is why I have a very strict timetable on the outset. And you know, I don't know whose fault this is, but it's somebody's fault. I also found this clip of Jerome Lynch dressing down one of the prior officials.

45:20 I play that for you. Aria's witness, Catherine Balkisun said the company took quick and urgent action in an attempt to de risk the situation, but said it was a balancing act to send rescue into the pipeline. She maintained that the conditions inside the pipeline were unknown, as was the cause of the incident at the time. I noted that Paria took the decision to ensure no one re entered the area after Christopher Boudron was rescued, despite a relative of one of the divers tating his willingness. Parrio also took action to say, listen, hold up, are you are you sure you want to dive in there? Because these are the risks to someone nice could be lost.

46:01 It's a it's a balancing act, right, it might be a. Different balancing act if it was your father that was in the pipe or your son. I think we take a break there. No, that's not fair. Is there an objection to that. Parrier's attorneys then intervened. I don't think it's fair. With the greatest of deference to do our tidy business we have we and decide representing Parier has been respectful and sensitive to mister Ali and all of that. It's only fear. It's only fear that we extend the same respecting deference to firious witnesses.

46:45 Mister Lynch then apologized and clarified his statement. Of course, I'm very sorry that you are upset by this miss but part of the risk analysis must include the person being willing to go into a pipe and make it take a greater risk. I cannot divorce myself from the fact that if it were my son, I would take a risk that I might not if it were not my son. Fast forward about a year and in November of twenty and twenty three, the report was finally produced, the one that we've been pulling from by the chair Jerome Lynch, and he recommended in this report prosecuting Pariah officials for corporate manslaughter and charging Colin Piper for OSH Act violations.

47:41 The next update was January sixteenth of this year. Twenty and twenty five, Pariah's general manager Mushtak Mohammad, former Terminal Operations manager Colin Piper, LMCS director Kazim Ali Senior, Jrum guessing Is kazim Ali Junior father, and their respective companies faced fifteen charges under the OSH Act. The charges relate to alleged failures in safety measures and risk assessments that OSHA claims contributed to the death of four divers. They all pleaded not guilty to the charges laid out by Chief Inspector Franz Bisbane. It's understandable to want someone to blame, and as the manslaughter lawsuit plays out in court, it might even be found that there was criminal negligence on the part of Pariah. By the way, might I recommend not naming your company pariah a noun that means outcast or a person who is rejected or despised by society.

48:50 But I want to address a narrative that has taken hold online and is repeated by content creators nearly across the board, and that is that Pariah decided not to launch a rescue mission because of the projected monetary cost to the company. As far as I've found, there's really nothing to support the idea that it was a cost cutting issue. To me, it seemed to be more about fearing the loss of life of other divers, which makes sense as being something you'd be naturally worried about. Now, this is not to say that there wasn't incompetence displayed by Pariah on the day of the disaster, but that's my argument that it seems to be more of incompetence rather than willful evil. There's also the claim that was repeated by Faisal Curban Sun during the press conference that Pariah closed up the entry to the pipeline, so if any of the four divers escaped, they wouldn't be able to get out. Nothing in the five hundred plus page document I reviewed or any of the testimony supported this.

49:54 And there's one last thing, a sort of copy paste message that seems to get posted in the comments of YouTube videos about the Pariah incident. I've seen it a handful of times now, and it goes something like this. Here are some additional facts. Number One, they were in there for four days, and on the third day people were still heard banging on the pipe. Number two, when four days had passed and they were sure they were dead, they flushed the bodies out of the pipe as quickly as possible. This damaged the bodies and flooded any air bubbles remaining, so if the men were alive, then the flushing operation probably killed them. Number Three, the bodies were retrieved in secret and placed in boxes to disguise them, and then snuck out via a back entrance while the family members were left waiting. Number four, the families were never informed that the men had died and that the bodies had been retrieved. They had to find out via news programs. Number five. No one from Pariah ever met with the families. They were just outright ignored. Number six Chris tried to check himself out of the hospital, but was restrained and forcefully sedated on the orders of Pariah, who feared he was planning on mounting his own rogue mission operation in parentheses. He later confirmed he was number seven.

51:14 When first informed of the accident, the first thing Pariah managers asked was how much downtime there would be. That was their first and only concern. Number eight. The company has an extensive history of corruption. Its managers are in bed with the government and they use the company to do underhand business so they can steal tax money. When you ask the person who posts these comments for sources for their claims, they usually respond by saying that you just have to believe them. Unfortunately, these types of unsubstantiated claims do nothing to help the victims and in fact, only further hurt the case against Pariah. As people find out that these facts are not true, they can tend to disbelieve Some of the truth to the story, and this is one of those stories that's so bizarre that you really don't have to add anything to it. If you see these comments online, I would ask you to just ignore them. And if anybody posts these comments without sources in the comments section on Spotify, I'll be deleting them.

52:19 While the Pariah disaster took the lives of four men, there was amazingly one man who made it out, Christopher Boudrum. And while today he lives as a free man, the quality of his life has forever changed. The first three days out of the pipeline, he spent just trying to clean up the oil off of his skin. Oil on my skin for treat is treat? Did I trying to take oil off my skin? Somor? I don't have the the the chemicals to take them oil off on my skin? When I set it up on them, I was able to tell my wife what they bring the getty oil off on me, oil all up inside my nostrils, all in my signos.

53:00 From an article on the website CNC three dot co or reporter went to meet with Christopher more than a year after the disaster that claimed the lives of his friends in speaking to them, he said, quote, how can I teach my daughter to swim when I afraid to go in the water. It's difficult even going to the beach since this happened. My daughter begs me to go to the beach because it's a stone's throw away. But anytime I go there, I see berths number five and number six. My daughter is going on four this year. How can I properly play with her? How can I teach her to swim if I afraid to go in the water. Christopher admitted to the reporter that he's been on a downward spiral since the accident. Quote, Sometimes I just sitting down and I just get a flashback. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I jump out of my bed with cold sweating, waking up my wife, disturbing her sleeping whenever she's home sleeping with me. In addition to nightmares, Chris First said he's also plagued by what he calls daymares. He said, quote, it's like a tea bag.

54:06 Every time you dip it, it's getting darker and darker and darker. That's what's going on here with this. It can't come out of my head. Thank you to our newest Dark signers Corey Arleth, Matt Sussman, Raymond Leslie, Sam and Sarah Reisner. If you want to join the band, hear your name red on the show, go to patreon dot com slash Tapes from the Dark Side. Thank you to our associate producers, Sam and Jay DeMoss. We thank you to our producers Jason Lews, Michael Paul Dekel, Erica, Kevin Stevenson, Veronica, Sidney Rayman, Kristin Rice, Jesse Bateman, Mariah Manique Wilkinson, Teddy Redman, Jason Irvin, Jessica Cooper, Fiona Gibson, Jo d C Sundan, Joyce, Lovelace, Mallory Bitterman, Santana Savine,

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57:14 A dark Side escod