Latest news with #divers
Daily Mail
21 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Five men trapped in a 30-inch oil pipeline deep under the sea, air running out and left to die: Everything to know about America's No.1 podcast
On February 25 2022, five professional divers were working to repair a leaking section of oil pipeline off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago when something went terribly wrong. Unbeknownst to them, there was a pressure differential between the inside of the pipe and the underwater room in which they were working. When they removed a plug that was keeping the pipe sealed, the high-pressure air that was being pumped into the room rushed to fill the void inside the pipe with such horrifying force that it pulled the men in with it, trapping them deep beneath the Caribbean sea. They were sucked into the 30-inch-wide pipe along with a rush of sea water, down 60ft down to where the pipe turned to run along the sea floor. When they finally came to a stop along a 1,2000ft length of pipe, they managed to group together in a small air bubble. Lying on their backs in the pitch black, injured and covered in oil they strained their necks out of the liquid to breath. Over the course of three grueling hours, one man, Christopher Boodram, 39, managed to drag himself out in search of help. And he had no choice but to leave his friends behind in the air pocket. When he finally emerged from the end of the pipe, injured and exhausted, he told the crowd waiting above the waterline what had happened and begged them to rescue the others. But officials from the state-owned oil company Paria - which owns and operates the pipe - allegedly refused. They reportedly insisted that a rescue mission was too dangerous and they blocked volunteer divers from staging their own rescue attempts. The other four men who had dived with Christopher that day - Fyzal Kurban, 57, Rishi Nagassar, 48, Kazim Ali Jr, 37, and Yusuf Henry, 31 - were left to die. Yet three years on, not one person has been held accountable. Neither Christopher nor the families of those killed have received a penny in compensation. And while the world was captivated by the rescue of 15 young footballers from a Thai cave in 2018 and horrified by the Titan submersible disaster of 2023, few outside the Caribbean have heard of the 'Paria Diving Tragedy'. The Daily Mail set out to change this and to tell these men's stories with our investigative podcast, Pipeline. We found evidence of failing safety standards, lucrative contracts and secretive political relationships, and confronted some of Trinidad and Tobago's most powerful men including its then prime minister, Keith Rowley. This week, Pipeline became the top series in US Apple Podcasts when we reached number one in their American charts and number two in Australia. Today we are sharing some of the most shocking revelations that we uncovered in our bid to expose the truth of the scandalous tragedy that claimed four lives and scarred countless others. The Autopsies In the hours after Christopher escaped from the pipe, waiting volunteer divers tried to communicate with the men still trapped inside. They did so by tapping out emergency signals onto the pipe's metal sides and waiting to hear if the men tapped back. They did. In fact, the volunteers could still hear the men deep inside the pipe in the early hours of Saturday morning - almost 12 hours after they were sucked in. But despite this clear proof of life, and the agonies the men must have been experiencing in their hellish prison, Paria repeatedly blocked volunteer divers from staging a rescue. They insisted it was too dangerous. Two days later Paria announced their efforts would be focused instead on recovering the men's bodies. On Monday 28 February 2021, they started flushing them out of the pipe. The dead divers were so swollen and covered in oil that they were almost unrecognizable to the family members who went to the mortuary to identify them. But most horrifying of all, their autopsies confirmed what the tapping signals had suggested - the men had not died quickly. In fact, one of the men, Kazim Ali Jr, may have been alive for up to 39 hours in those unimaginable conditions: trapped and terrified in the dark, desperately hoping rescuers would arrive soon. Past accidents Forty years before the four men died, one of their fathers was killed while working on exactly the same stretch of pipe. In 1985, Ramjohn Kurban, Fyzal's father, was working to recommission the pipe in which his son would later die, when gases escaped from the line and caught fire. There was a huge explosion that killed 14 workers. Fast forward four decades and in December 2021, just three months before the accident, Christopher, the sole survivor of the 'Pipeline' tragedy, and Rishi Nagassar - who would perish in it - were both involved in another incident. They were working on a nearby gas line - also owned and operated by Paria - when it caught on fire, sending flames spewing across the platform. 'I was just seeing fire shooting out all over,' Christopher told the Daily Mail. 'I swam as far down to the bottom as I could and stayed as long as I could because I was expecting an explosion.' Other workers did the same, diving off the platform and swimming down into the water to escape the flames, until a boat came to pick them up. They told Paria what happened, but Christopher said the accident was 'swept under the rug' without investigation. Cruel conspiracies In the aftermath of the tragedy, the country's media descended on the small town of San Fernando, all trying to work out what went wrong, and why the four divers hadn't been saved. The story was a national sensation and Christopher became an unwilling celebrity overnight. 'Everywhere we go, everywhere he go, people recognize us,' Christopher's wife, Candy told the Daily Mail. 'People would come up and want to ask him, 'Well, how did you get out?'' But as time went on, a lack of concrete answers created an information vacuum and conspiracy theories started to fill it. People began to turn on Christopher, accusing him of lying. They said there was no way he could have survived in the pipe. They accused him of being fame hungry, or of trying to cover something up. The vitriol grew so intense that even Christopher started to think he was going crazy. When he began his escape from the pipe, he had left the other men with the promise that he would come back with help. So when he was discharged after three days in intensive care and realized that his friends hadn't been rescued, it was agony. 'I made promises that I eventually couldn't keep. And that is something that I can't let go of,' he said, 'What gives me that right to live?' As he struggled with the aftermath of this trauma and survivor's guilt he found himself the target of trolls and critics who doubted his story so publicly he began to question his own mind. 'I went mad off reading social commentary. Sometimes I was even doubting my recollection of the events,' he told the Daily Mail. Christopher was finally vindicated nine months later, at the government appointed inquiry into the tragedy. There they played footage from a GoPro one of the men had been wearing when they were sucked in - it showed them alive inside the pipe and Christopher there with them. 'After the audio played, the whole country just went, 'man this man was telling the truth',' Christopher said. 'And it's only then that it gave me some mental peace - this was real, and I didn't make this up.' To listen to the chart-topping podcast series, search for Pipeline now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Mail's gripping podcast Pipeline - which tells the horrifying story of five divers sucked into an undersea oil pipe - reaches TOP spot in US Apple charts
The Daily Mail's gripping podcast Pipeline is now the top series in the US Apple Podcast charts, and second in Australia. The bombshell documentary, which tells the story of a group of divers left to die in an undersea oil pipe, has topped the all-genres charts less than four weeks after the first episode aired. It has fought off competition from heavyweight podcast producers including Sony, ABC News and even Apple itself. Pipeline tells the story of five professional divers who were tasked with repairing an undersea oil pipe off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago in February 2022. Due to unexpected air pressure within the 30in-wide pipe, all five men were sucked hundreds of feet into it as they were putting the finishing touches to their work. One of the divers managed to escape but the other four were left to die, with an autopsy later revealing one may have been alive for up to 39 hours. Pipeline's international success has been down to its incredible story that taps into everyone's worst nightmare, according to the Mail's head of podcasts Jamie East. 'I just couldn't believe that more hadn't been made of this story,' he said of his thoughts after the idea was pitched to him by reporter Isabelle Stanley, who hosts the show. 'The fact that it turned into this huge, disgraceful cover-up, and that the divers could have been saved, is just unbelievable. 'It has been really pleasing to give a voice to the victims' families, who have been trying to get justice and compensation for their loved ones for years. We hope that this will spur them on to do that.' One of the divers, Christopher Boodram, 39, managed to escape after an unimaginable three-hour ordeal. But after dragging his injured body through the filthy, flooded, pitch-dark depths of the narrow pipe, he was dashed to hospital where he later discovered to his horror that no rescue mission for his trapped colleagues had been attempted. In fact, the Paria Fuel Trading Company, the Trinidadian state-owned oil firm that controlled the pipeline, was actively preventing rescuers from going into the pipe. Pipeline tells a riveting story of human survival, betrayal and lies, and probes the one horrifying question refuses to go away: why were four men left to die under the sea? It uncovers evidence of failing safety standards, lucrative contracts and secretive political relationships, confronts some of Trinidad's most powerful men and confronts its then-prime minister. The dogged enquiries may even have triggered an early election on the island, as politicians sought to protect themselves from bad publicity over the deaths of Fyzal Kurban, 57, Rishi Nagassar, 48, Kazim Ali Jr, 37, and Yusuf Henry, 31. The team that travelled to Trinidad and Tobago to carry out the investigation for the show also included producer Bella Soames and journalist Andy Jehring. 'I'm really pleased that Pipeline has been so successful around the world. It's thanks to a lot of hard work from Bella and Isabelle, they worked incredibly hard for months. 'They've lived this story, and it shows - if you immerse yourself in the story and give it the credit it deserves, then it makes a real difference, and listeners obviously agree.' He added Apple was very supportive and contacted him this morning to tell him Pipeline had become the number one series in the US. A second investigation series is already in production, looking at the devastating impact of a bizarre ritual on thousands of US families. To listen to the chart-topping podcast series, search Pipeline now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Daily Mail
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Tourist suffers underwater nightmare as her air supply helmet dislodges
An underwater adventure almost turned into a nightmare for a tourist exploring a sunken playground when the helmet providing her air supply was dislodged. A group of travelers at Xcaret Park in Mexico were participating in the Sea Trek experience when one guest lost her bearing and dismantled her crucial breathing apparatus. Footage of the incident has garnered millions of views across the internet with safety warnings and theories about what happened - but a diver who claims to have been on the same trip has shared a new perspective on the incident. Viral footage shows the visitors enjoying the water excursion, with one woman gesturing toward the camera before chaos quickly unfolds behind her. Another woman seen in the background of the video clings to the guiderail when a stingray brushes below her feet below. She's forced into a flip underneath the bar, sending her feet flying into the air as she her helmet comes loose. When she turned her body, her helmet, which contained oxygen needed to immerse in the depths of the supervised area, slips off her head. As she began to panic, the woman writhed in the water until scuba divers quickly responded to bring her to the surface as the other adventurers watched in shock. While one video with nine million views claims the woman 'accidentally flipped upside down due to a strong air stream bubbling up from the sea floor', a woman who claimed to be in the video offered another explanation. The woman said: 'The woman behind me fell due to loss of balance after a stingray passed her feet and she tried lift her legs ups therefore caused her to fall [forwards]. 'She was okay and completely sound afterwards.' Viewers had quickly offered their own thoughts about the unique underwater trip, with many agreeing she may have been spooked by the stingray lurking below. 'Having done this before, it would probably be enough the current is very strong down there' one person said. 'You actually see the girl jumps up into the air a few times to touch a stingray. She jumps too high and her legs go up so she's flipped upside down.' 'She looked at the ray that's when she tilted her head and was turned upside down like a beach ball,' another agreed. 'Definitely need to hold on and follow instructions!' a forth wrote. The excursion is created by Sub Sea Systems and is offered at numerous vacation destinations. Helmet diving is advertised as an easy adventure that anyone ages eight to 96 can participate in without having experience swimming. The helmet is made of polycarbonate materials, which are unbreakable plastics and typically transparent. The helmet is also weighted so that participants can walk underwater. If the helmet falls off, they not only use their oxygen source but won't be weighted to the bottom of the ocean. 'The helmet works similar to an inverted glass– the air remains as long as you don't turn the glass over,' Sub Sea Systems explained on their website. 'This concept, combined with a constant flow of air supply, continuously maintains a fresh turnover of air within the helmet.' Sub Sea Systems said the helmet diving has over a 25-year track record of safe excursions with over three million people participating in the activity. Thrill-seekers can try helmet diving at several locations, including Xcaret Park in Cancun. Xcaret has a water park, amusement park, and eco-archaeological attractions. A training session is first held before participants try for themselves. They are then guided to the seabed and follow a path marked by railings at the bottom of the ocean.
Daily Mail
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Terrifying moment underwater tourist appears to fight for life in viral video as diver reveal what really happened
An underwater adventure almost turned into a nightmare for a tourist exploring a sunken playground when the helmet providing her air supply was dislodged. A group of travelers at Xcaret Park in Mexico were participating in the Sea Trek experience when one guest lost her bearing and dismantled her crucial breathing apparatus. Footage of the incident has garnered millions of views across the internet with safety warnings and theories about what happened - but a diver who claims to have been on the same trip has shared a new perspective on the incident. Viral footage shows the visitors enjoying the water excursion, with one woman gesturing toward the camera before chaos quickly unfolds behind her. Another woman seen in the background of the video clings to the guiderail when a stingray brushes below her feet below. She's forced into a flip underneath the bar, sending her feet flying into the air as she her helmet comes loose. When she turned her body, her helmet, which contained oxygen needed to immerse in the depths of the supervised area, slips off her head. As she began to panic, the woman writhed in the water until scuba divers quickly responded to bring her to the surface as the other adventurers watched in shock. While one video with nine million views claims the woman 'accidentally flipped upside down due to a strong air stream bubbling up from the sea floor', a woman who claimed to be in the video offered another explanation. The woman said: 'The woman behind me fell due to loss of balance after a stingray passed her feet and she tried lift her legs ups therefore caused her to fall [forwards]. 'She was okay and completely sound afterwards.' Viewers had quickly offered their own thoughts about the unique underwater trip, with many agreeing she may have been spooked by the stingray lurking below. 'Having done this before, it would probably be enough the current is very strong down there' one person said. 'You actually see the girl jumps up into the air a few times to touch a stingray. She jumps too high and her legs go up so she's flipped upside down.' 'She looked at the ray that's when she tilted her head and was turned upside down like a beach ball,' another agreed. 'Definitely need to hold on and follow instructions!' a forth wrote. The excursion is created by Sub Sea Systems and is offered at numerous vacation destinations. Helmet diving is advertised as an easy adventure that anyone ages eight to 96 can participate in without having experience swimming. The helmet is made of polycarbonate materials, which are unbreakable plastics and typically transparent. The helmet is also weighted so that participants can walk underwater. If the helmet falls off, they not only use their oxygen source but won't be weighted to the bottom of the ocean. 'The helmet works similar to an inverted glass– the air remains as long as you don't turn the glass over,' Sub Sea Systems explained on their website. 'This concept, combined with a constant flow of air supply, continuously maintains a fresh turnover of air within the helmet.' Sub Sea Systems said the helmet diving has over a 25 year track record of safe excursions with over three million people participating in the activity. Thrill-seekers can try helmet diving at several locations, including Xcaret Park in Cancun. Xcaret has a water park, amusement park, and eco-archaeological attractions. A training session is first held before participants try for themselves. They are then guided to the seabed and follow a path marked by railings at the bottom of the ocean.
Khaleej Times
13-06-2025
- Khaleej Times
Why UAE deliberately sank 3 ships; what it means for ocean's ecosystem
The sinking of three vessels in the UAE is not the result of an accident but rather an ecotourism effort aimed at fostering vibrant marine ecosystems. Once decommissioned, these vessels have been transformed into artificial reefs, which now thrive with marine life, offering divers a unique underwater experience. Three of these remarkable underwater havens are Inchcape 1, Inchcape 2, and Inchcape 10, vessels deliberately sunk to create flourishing artificial reefs. The waters off the east coast of the UAE are becoming a vibrant testament to the UAE's commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainable tourism. Inchcape 1 Sunk in 2001, the Inchcape 1 rests at a depth of approximately 32 metres off the coast of Al Aqah, Fujairah. This site is recommended for experienced divers and has evolved into a diverse marine habitat. Large numbers of red snapper, cardinal fish, and other marine creatures can be seen. It is accessible by boat trip (approximately 5 minutes) from Al Aqah, and diving and snorkelling equipment are essential. Inchcape 2 The Inchcape 2, decommissioned and intentionally sunk in 2002, rests at a depth of approximately 22 meters. This former vessel has successfully transitioned into a thriving artificial coral reef, attracting a diverse array of marine life. Divers exploring the site can observe parrotfish, small boxfish, moray eels, and various crab species. The reef also provides a home for long-tailed rays and barracudas, making it a recommended destination for professional divers keen on observing the rich marine ecosystem. Located off Khor Fakkan, Inchcape 2 is accessible via a 25-minute boat trip from Al Aqah. Diving enthusiasts can visit the site year-round, with access and activities managed through licensed diving centres. Essential diving equipment is required, and entry fees apply only when booking through these centres. Inchcape 10 Similarly, the Inchcape 10, originally known as 'awaiz' and considered the biggest, was decommissioned and intentionally sunk in 2003. This vessel now lies at a depth of approximately 23 meters, serving as another flourishing artificial coral reef. The site is teeming with marine life, including an abundance of moray eels, barracudas, and other fish species, offering a captivating experience for professional divers eager to explore the open waters and the vibrant marine environment surrounding the vessel. Situated off Fujairah, Inchcape 10 is just an 8-minute boat ride from the Fujairah International Marine Club. Like Inchcape 2, it is accessible year-round, with diving activities and access facilitated by licensed diving centers. Divers must bring their own equipment, and booking through these centres is necessary for entry. Inquiries regarding Inchcape 10 can also be directed to the Fujairah Adventures Center. Adding to the appeal of these unique dive sites, Saleh Al-Dhahouri, from Dibba Al Fujairah, noted that these ships or wrecks had played a major role in revitalising diving in the Eastern Province, increasing the amount of fish, and the appearance of soft coral on the wrecks in beautiful colours that dazzle divers, enhance the beauty of the place and support fish stocks and other dive sites. He said, "The diving there is wonderful, a beautiful place, and you couldn't get over the amount of fish and coral.' 'I have been diving since 1998 before the three ships sank. Diving was limited. With these ships, diving sites have increased, and they have become part of the weekly diving program.' He added Mintaha Al Shehhi, an Emirati diver specialising in sharks from Sharjah, has been living her passion beneath the surface of the sea for over three years. She said, "One of the most significant sites I have dived into and learned a lot from is the "Inshkab 2" wreck in Khorfakkan, where I have made more than 40 dives, and I have never gotten tired of it!' She explained it as not just a dive site but a complete marine environment. The frequent presence of sharks and turtles is clear scientific evidence that the site enjoys excellent ecological balance, as these large creatures only thrive in healthy and safe places. She added, "Given my specialisation in sharks, I appreciate these natural signs. Sharks do not choose random locations, and turtles only pass through when they feel secure and find natural abundance. ' These deliberate sinkings underscore the UAE's innovative approach to ecotourism, transforming retired vessels into vital underwater ecosystems.
