Gulf of Paria Underwater Welders Deaths: Lawsuits Filed

[shake d livin wake d dead]

Tstt loss some data: fire the head

Paria kill 4 people: head still employed...

Make the maths, maths

[bluefete]

Tstt loss some data: fire the head

Paria kill 4 people: head still employed...

Make the maths, maths

One must NEVER em-barr-ass a gubment minster. That is guaranteed loss wuk!

https://trinidadexpress.com/news/local/ ... df466.html

Ask Dolly about dat. Everything that happens in the ministry must make her look good!

Killing people on the other hand, nah, not so much. Dat is not em-barr-assing de minster.

[The_Honourable]

Pressure mounts as UNC, MSJ want Paria board fired

The United National Congress (UNC) and the Movement for Social Justice are now calling for the entire board of executives at the Paria Fuel Trading Company to resign with immediate effect or be fired over its negligence in the diving tragedy at its facility in 2022.

Paria’s board of directors include Fayad Ali, Avie Chadee, Peter Clarke, Eustace Nancis, Reza Salim and chairman Newman George.

Following recommendations coming out of the Commission of Enquiry’s (CoE) report for the company to be charged with corporate manslaughter arising out of the tragedy, in which four divers dies, the Opposition said yesterday that the executives were the perpetrators and as a result, they should all be brought to justice for their unwillingness to do all they could to save the lives of the men.

During a media conference at the Office of the Opposition in Port-of-Spain yesterday, Barataria MP Saddam Hosein noted that even if the company is charged with the offence of corporate manslaughter, it does not mean anyone will go to jail.

He said the various sentences associated with corporate manslaughter are limited to a fine. This fine, he said, will ultimately be paid by the state.

Hosein said, “Four citizens of this country have died. The board of Paria must be fired and or resign forthwith. They must not receive another cent of taxpayers’ dollars after presiding over the catastrophic deaths of these four divers.

“In fact, none of these directors must sit on any other state enterprise. They have infected Paria with conduct that is considered criminal… The negligence of Paria converted a state-owned facility into a crime scene.”

He also called on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds to demand the resignation of all board members if they do not resign immediately.

Energy Minister Stuart Young laid the CoE report into the deaths of LMCS divers Rishi Nagassar, Kazim Ali Jr, Fyzal Kurban and Yusuf Henry in Parliament on Friday. The men were sucked into a 30-inch underwater pipeline while conducting maintenance works at Berth No.6 in the Pointe-a-Pierre harbour in February 2022.

The CoE’s report, which recommended Paria be charged with corporate manslaughter and was highly critical of its treatment of the men’s families and lone survivor Christopher Boodram, has since been forwarded to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Roger Gaspard.

MSJ leader David Abdulah also made a similar call at a virtual media conference yesterday, where he slammed the conduct of Paria executives after the fatal pipeline accident and their treatment of the deceased divers’ families and the survivor.

He charged, “All of them who were board members on February of 2022 must be fired. They have to take responsibility as the board of directors. They must be fired and they must never sit on a state board again.

“We are making that absolutely clear. Newman George and others who were directors of Paria on 25th of February 2022 when those four men died in the pipeline after suffering for hours...”

He said Boodram and the bereaved families received not “one red cent” while the Paria executives continue to receive their salaries.

“That is not only morally wrong, it is a travesty of humanity, as the commissioner of inquiry said, it is reprehensible, absolutely reprehensible that the families of the four men and the survivor got not a red cent in the last 23 months while board members were collecting thousands of dollars in fees. They should have taken money out of their own pocket to give to the families, quite apart from Paria giving the families money.”

If the law does not permit Collin Piper and others to be criminally charged, he said the least that should happen is that they be fired with no terminal benefits.

Abdulah also called on Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard to take immediate steps to act on the recommendation of the CoE report that Paria be held liable.

He said, “All the evidence is there. The work of the Commission of Inquiry, the verbatim evidence, the physical evidence in terms of documentation and other things, all are there in the public domain. The DPP does not have to launch another investigation into another investigation. The police don’t have to start another investigation. The evidence is there, charge Paria with corporate manslaughter.”

He said this will be an important marker for all companies going forward that they can be held liable for the deaths of employees or workers either employed by them or through contractors.

Abdulah also called on the Occupational Health and Safety Authority to move swiftly to bring charges against Paria and the other parties involved for breaches of the OSH Act, as the two-year limitation on laying charges is fast approaching.

He called on the Government, particularly Attorney General Reginald Armour and Labour Minister Stephen Mc Clashie to make the amendment recommended by the commissioners to the OSH Act, as well as the labour movement’s proposed amendments that were submitted over the years.

He also urged Government to amend the law in order to implement another of the CoE’s recommendations that “compulsory regulation be introduced with a regime of financial penalties and criminal sanctions for companies and individuals failing to adhere to them.”

Contacted yesterday however, DPP Gaspard said he could not “say much” on the matter, as he still has to peruse the documents.

“I can’t say much yet. I have to read the documents first. I intend to do so as soon as I can,” he said via a WhatsApp message.

https://guardian.co.tt/news/pressure-mo ... fdc31b3a49

[Mmoney607]

Stephen Reis: Release the report! Release the report!
Also Stephen Reis: Why they release the report in the middle of carnival?!

[Val]

Moral of the story: look out for yourself, because no one is going to look out for you unless you are part of the cabal.

[nervewrecker]

BREAKING NEWS
'Charge Paria with manslaughter'
https://trinidadexpress.com/newsextra/charge-paria-with-manslaughter/article_74ef4328-b6fc-11ee-81ba-cb34517737a6.html

De amt of unrecorded incidents taking place in heritage / paria atm...

But aye we hadda look good in de public eye after that paria incident

Have unrecorded events taking place all over. Next door by you, the older son, had three of us were cousins in the same form in sch. The next cousin, next door to them....ask about it. And I saw the dude just Wednesday or so walking his dog.

Sent from my VOG-L29 using TriniTuner mobile app

Well, one more fatality. One less civil neighbour

Sent from my VOG-L29 using TriniTuner mobile app

[The_Honourable]

PRESSURE ON PARIA: The families of the deceased divers have joined with members of the OWTU in a protest at the gates to Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited in Pointe-a-Pierre with a simple demand, that the board of directors of Paria which was in place on the day of the divers' tragedy all resign or be terminated.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=7241779162568059

[wing]

PRESSURE ON PARIA: The families of the deceased divers have joined with members of the OWTU in a protest at the gates to Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited in Pointe-a-Pierre with a simple demand, that the board of directors of Paria which was in place on the day of the divers' tragedy all resign or be terminated.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=7241779162568059

Unfortunate that they have chosen to align themselves with the owtu and opposition leeches. They should focus on their legal team to ensure maximum compensation. Terminating the board solves nothing, except to bring another bunch of square pegs.

[pugboy]

allyuh want them senior paria ppl to get fired and lose they pension and ting

[The_Honourable]

LMCS divers in Paria tragedy insured for $250,000

Land and Marine Contracting Services (LMCS)’s workmen’s compensation insurance for contracted divers for work at Paria’s facilities was valued at $250,000.

According to the contract documents submitted to the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) by Paria, LMCS’s insurance broker was Norman Gabriel Limited Insurance Brokers and the insurance company was Trinre.

The CoE documents show that LMCS’ workmen’s compensation was valid from December 31, 2020, to December 30, 2021.

Just over two months later, on February 25, 2022, the company lost four of its employees on the Paria compound.

The insurance renewal was only issued on March 8, 2022, eleven days after the incident.

LMCS’s lawyer Kamini Persaud provided the Sunday Guardian with a copy of the renewal document, dated March 8, 2022, for the period December 31, 2021, to December 30, 2022. She said that March 8 was the issue date for the continuation of coverage under the policy and that workmen’s compensation was still valid.

The Sunday Guardian understands that Paria does not have the updated insurance document in its files for LMCS, but Persaud said it was submitted to the COE.

LMCS began work on Paria’s compound in July 2021 after it won the contract valued at $5.2 million which was tendered for in February.

The Sunday Guardian understands that an incident happened on Paria’s compound involving an LMCS worker on July 2, which caused Paria to be slapped with an Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) prohibition for five months.

After work resumed in January, the incident took place a month later.

LMCS divers Rishi Nagassar, Kazim Ali Jr, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry, and Christopher Boodram, were sucked into a 30-inch underwater pipeline after a differential pressure (Delta P) event occurred while they were doing maintenance work at Berth No 6 in the Pointe-a-Pierre harbour nearly two years ago.

After the incident, the job was 37 per cent complete and LMCS earned about $3 million for the job.

The company has worked with Paria since 2018 and earned up to $53.5 million with short and long-term contracts with its final job concluding in April 2022, according to the documents.

Compensation in the works

Attorney Prakash Ramadhar has called on Paria to provide $5 million in ex gratia payment to the families involved in the incident.

On Friday, Persaud said that LMCS was in the process of making arrangements to pay workmen’s compensation to the families of the four divers

Persaud said that LMCS had so far finalised payments for two of the families and once the required documents are received from the other two families, they would also receive compensation.

“LMCS is putting things in place so that all of the parties will get what is due them under the Workmen’s Compensation Act,” she said.

In an interview with Guardian Media on Thursday, LMCS’ managing director Kazim Ali Snr said the Occupational Safety and Health Authority (OSHA) had prohibited its diving services.

During Prime Minister’s questions in Parliament on Friday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said people awaiting compensation would not die because some of the people involved in this matter had already got $50 million from Paria.

When Couva South MP Rudy Indarsingh asked who got the $50 million, Dr Rowley responded, “Mr Deputy Speaker, in the context of being told that people could die and starve to death, I simply said that that is not the situation that exists because the people involved, whether it is Paria or LMCS, have earned 50-odd million dollars from Paria and, therefore, I don’t expect anybody to starve to death when the two companies are involved.”

He added, “This is not a matter for the Government of T&T to be going to jump in. This is a matter where a State company had an accident in a situation where a contract was being executed by a private company. These are the facts. So the Government cannot just jump in and decide to pay compensation willy-nilly all over the place. We have to follow processes ... If you’re talking to the Central Government and to the Prime Minister’s Office, the Office of the Prime Minister is not at this time involved in this matter.”

Paria remains mum

Meanwhile, Paria told the Sunday Guardian that they have been gagged by their attorneys from speaking on the matter because it would be sub-judice.

For his part, Dr Rowley said the findings of the CoE were being reviewed by the Paria board, and the Government was not prepared to “override” the board’s responsibility and role.

On whether the Paria board should be removed, Dr Rowley said, “The status of the board of Paria is a matter for the Cabinet of Trinidad and Tobago, and I will not take any advice from the Member of Oropouche East.”

The CoE determined that the Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited should be charged with corporate manslaughter.

It is one of 52 recommendations in the report produced by Jerome Lynch, KC, chairman of the COE into the Paria pipeline tragedy which led to the deaths of the divers.

Lynch said Paria breached its duty of care to Land and Marine Construction Services Ltd (LMCS). In turn, LMCS breached its duty of care to its workers.

According to the report, there is enough evidence for prosecution of both Paria Fuel Trading Company’s Operations Manager Colin Piper and LMCS’s Ali Senior individually and Paria and LMCS as employers for several offences under the OSH Act.

“However, at the time of writing this report the OSH ACT requires that any such proceedings before the Industrial Court must be filed within two years of the incident becoming known- in other words 24th February 2024,” it said.

The deaths and the public furore which followed led to the Commission of Enquiry which cost the country $15.5 million. Attorneys fees were a further $8 million.

https://www.guardian.co.tt/news/lmcs-di ... 614eb1e02e

[The_Honourable]

OSHA charges against LMCS, Paria in limbo

A RULING by this country’s highest court, the Privy Council, will determine whether 12 charges filed by the Occupational Safety and Health Authority and Agency (OSHA) in the Paria diving tragedy after a six-month time limit is valid.

The charges filed against Land Marine Construction Services (LMCS), Paria Fuel Trading Company, and three of Paria’s executive managers arising out of the 2022 diving tragedy will remain on hold pending the Privy Council’s ruling.

In 2023, OSHA lost its case in an unrelated matter when the Court of Appeal held that the complainant only has six months from when the cause of action became known to OSHA to file a claim.

If the Privy Council agrees with the local court ruling, the charges against LMCS and Paria and its three managers will fall by the wayside.

The bulk of the five complaints were against LMCS, with two against Paria, its general manager Mushtaq Mohammed and terminal operations manager Collin Piper and one against technical and maintenance manager Michael Wei.

Sunday marked two years since five LMCS divers were sucked into a pipeline at Paria’s Berth 5 facilities off Pointe-a-Pierre.

Christopher Boodram, Kazim Ali Jnr, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry and Rishi Nagassar were repairing a 30-inch pipeline when they were sucked in. Only Boodram was able to get out. The others remained trapped inside. Their bodies were removed from the pipeline days later.

Families of the men held a second-anniversary walk in Couva on February 24, calling for justice.

The OSHA’s complaints were filed on December 13, 2023, in the Industrial Court. A report by the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) into the diving tragedy was delivered to President Christine Kangaloo on November 30, 2023, and the report was laid in Parliament on January 19.

LMCS has since filed a cross-complaint against Paria, accusing the state company of causing the accident which claimed the lives of its employees by changing the scope of works they were contracted to undertake. It also maintains it is not liable for what took place two years ago.

LMCS also maintained that it was prevented by Paria from rescuing its workers and saving their lives.

The CoE recommended charging Paria with corporate manslaughter.

“There is not a strong enough case to recommend the prosecution of any one individual. However, the law permits a corporation to be charged with manslaughter." The DPP is reviewing the recommendations of the report.

The report said there was evidence to prosecute Piper and LMCS head Kazim Ali Snr (whose son died in the tragedy) and their firms for offences under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The report said the deadline to file such proceedings at the Industrial Court was two years after the incident, February 24, but recommended this be extended to three years.

According to the complaints against LMCS, named as the first defendant in the action, between January 7-February 28, 2022, the company committed a safety and health offence when it failed to ensure the safety, health and welfare of its employees.

The particulars of that complaint are that on February 25, 2022, the five LMCS employees were conducting subsea maintenance work at Berth 6 when they were pulled into the No 36 sealine riser by a rapid rise of water.

This resulted in the death of four divers, the complaint said. LMCS was accused of failing to identify and evaluate the risk of a differential pressure condition (or delta P) and failing to implement control measures to manage the risks associated with a delta P.

The second complaint also concerns the delta P hazards and an alleged failure to take these into account by implementing appropriate procedures for subsea work.

LMCS was further accused of failing to provide adequate and suitable driving apparatus for subsea work, “thus exposing its employees to the risk of bodily harm.” The complaint said the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus used by the five divers was prohibited for the diving operations that were being done.

The fourth complaint was that LMCS, as the men’s employer, failed to properly train, instruct and supervise the five divers while the fifth complaint was that it failed to identify, assess and mitigate the hazards associated with subsea maintenance works and working in a confined space.

Complaint against Paria

Two complaints were lodged against Paria Fuel Trading Company.

The first complaint against the state-owned company is that from June 2, 2021, to February 28, 2022, it failed, as an employer, to ensure that individuals not in their employment, namely the five divers, were not exposed to risks to their safety and health.

The complaint said Paria’s undertaking included conducting and mobilising subsea maintenance work. It said Paria engaged LMCS to carry out repairs and refurbishment works; directed LMCS how the No 36 sealine riser was to be cleared; and informed LMCS they would provide personnel to oversee the line clearing.

The complaint said Paria changed the methodology in the line clearing operation of the works to be done by LMCS and failed to reassess the risks associated with such a change, in particular, the creation of a latent hazardous delta P condition.

It also accused Paria of failing to monitor/oversee the works being done by LMCS; failing to provide LMCS with the relevant information on the risks associated with the change in methodology for the line-clearing operation; and failing its duty to oversee the work that was being done by LMCS.

The second complaint accused Paria of failing to prepare or revise an emergency plan in writing based on a risk assessment in line with provisions of the OSH Act. That complaint alleges that Paria failed to review and commend its emergency response plan to address the risk of a delta P hazard involved in the subsea maintenance work, which it hired LMCS to do.

Paria’s managers were accused of neglecting their duties to ensure safe operations, oversee the project and ensure an emergency response plan.

LMCS counter-complaint

On February 23, LMCS filed ten counter-complaints against Paria.

One of the complaints alleged that from June 1, 2021-February 28, 2022, Paria breached its duty under the OSH Act by failing to ensure that LMCS employees were not exposed to risks to their safety and health.

It said Paria’s scope of work for the work tendered by LMCS included conducting and mobilisation of subsea maintenance work at Berths No 5 and 6.

LMCS claimed Paria engaged LMCS to carry out repairs and refurbishment work and accepted its tender documents, which included its project execution plans.

It said Paria directed LMCS on content removal at No 36 sealine riser and provided personnel to oversee isolation/deisolation, depressurisation/pressurisation and draining/filling product from lines Berth No 5 and Berth No 6.

It further noted that LMCS’s project execution plan (PEP) and its method statements were premised on content removal of the sealine riser No 36 between Berths 5 and 6 but Paria “changed and/or modified the line clearing target and/or ought to have known from its systematic measurements that an excessive amount of content beyond the methodology in the line clearing operation of the works being conducted by LMCS was removed and failed to inform LMCS of this and/or to stop work and reassess the risks associated with such change, in particular the creation of a latent hazardous differential pressure condition.”

LMCS accused Paria of failing in its duty to monitor/oversee the work it was doing and misguided it on the content removal.

LMCS further accused Paria of failing to prepare or revise an emergency plan in writing based on a risk assessment of a latent differential pressure hazard.

https://newsday.co.tt/2024/02/25/osha-c ... -in-limbo/

[PapyOne]

Two years now that this sad accident happened.
As you may have noticed, there are numerous videos on YouTube relating this event but all of them contain a lot of mistakes and wrong information’s.
Now if you really want to know more about it, here is a short animation that will help you to understand how quickly this event occurred and how far the divers were sucked into the pipeline.

[pugboy]

funny how this popped up today

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/hjHkqC ... tid=UalRPS

in the comments somebody mention paria too

[Habit7]

funny how this popped up today

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/hjHkqC ... tid=UalRPS

in the comments somebody mention paria too

I saw this a while before.

The issue is do we have commercial divers trained in rescuing ppl in a pipe. They are using an umbilical cord which we don’t know if they had access to during the incident. And it is easy going up and down but how are you swimming backwards on the lateral section of the pipe.

[pugboy]

commericial divers normally use umbilical lines
i recall the lmcs ppl saying it would be a hindrance in pipe work like this or something like that
yet this reel show foreign divers in a slightly smaller pipe

afaik scuba is not considered commercial working equipment….maybe in trinidad it is

[matix]

funny how this popped up today

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/hjHkqC ... tid=UalRPS

in the comments somebody mention paria too

If it’s the North Sea then this would be lines that send hot water through the suit.

[PapyOne]

funny how this popped up today

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/hjHkqC ... tid=UalRPS

in the comments somebody mention paria too

I saw this a while before.

The issue is do we have commercial divers trained in rescuing ppl in a pipe. They are using an umbilical cord which we don’t know if they had access to during the incident. And it is easy going up and down but how are you swimming backwards on the lateral section of the pipe.

It is known that two dive vessels with full commercial diving equipment arrived between 19h00 and 20h00. As it can be seen in my animation, the divers were sucked at a relatively long distance from the B6 elbow but on the rescue boats, several umbilical’s of 91 m (300 feet) were available and they could easily have been connected to each other in order to have sufficient length. (To save time, these transformations could have already been done on the way to the site). Unfortunately even if the rescue divers had been allowed to dive with such an equipment the chances of success would have been extremely slim. As you can see in my video, at the end of the event, the pressure in the pipeline is equal to 2.57 bars which correspond to a water depth of 15.7 m (51.5 ft.). This means that to bring the divers back safely to the surface, they had to use a 55 feet decompression table. Unfortunately with that 55 feet table the maximum exposure time is 360 min (6 hours), and this duration was reached at 20h45. This means that from that time, the rescue of the divers would then have become more and more problematic because there was then no longer a decompression table available for such a dive time and therefore the risk of generating a severe or even more serious type 2 accident would have been inevitable (no decompression chamber available on the site).

[PapyOne]

commericial divers normally use umbilical lines
i recall the lmcs ppl saying it would be a hindrance in pipe work like this or something like that
yet this reel show foreign divers in a slightly smaller pipe

afaik scuba is not considered commercial working equipment….maybe in trinidad it is

At contrary to what is written in the final report, this wasn’t a SCUBA OPERATION, I remind you that these guys were not diving, but instead they were working inside a dry hyperbaric habitat and therefore the scuba gear was only used during less than a minute to reach that chamber. If they had worked in the habitat while being tethered with a harness or equipped with surface demand gear as suggested by some ’’experts’’ then the five of them would have died because I do not know any diver that can resist to a pressure force comprised between 2 and 7 tons.

[PapyOne]

how you measuring pressure on inner/other side of the plug ?
you would have to put a gauge on the far side of the pipe I guess
even so with the undulations and pockets of air/fluid it could be somewhat inaccurate to do that

are there plugs which have nipples which run to the far side of the plug ?

The use of inflatable plugs during an underwater work is (in function of the sector of activity) relatively current and very safe procedures are established to handle them without any risk.
Your idea of using a plug that can measure downstream pressure is very interesting, but unfortunately such a product doesn’t seem to exist because I just spent half an hour on the web trying to find one without success.

[PapyOne]

Khan said the nipple on the plug was broken when retrieved, could this have been broked when it was flushed in or possible it broke off during operations and caused the deflation ?

This could have happened when the diver opened the said valve with his spanner or more likely because the valve got caught in the retaining chain at the start of the plug movement inside the riser.

[sMASH]

The pressure on habitat side of the plug was ok. Pressure in underside of plug was okay.
The difference was what it was.


The issue was the plug was deteriorated past the work life and ended up becoming dislodged, because the horizontal line had both gas and liquid, in an unsettled manner.


The lil gurgles was enough to cause the liquid leg to drop and dislodge the plug.

The paria side reps were not experienced enough to recognize the POTENTIAL hazards.

The reps were hired because of insufficient concern by management. Management not concerned cause they also don't know what the faq they doin.



These kinds if incidents will continue unless they get experienced people to enforce safety measures

[PapyOne]

Question - would a job like this require the divers to tethered to a rescue line? So that in any emergency situation they could be pulled out? What is the industry best practice for jobs like this?

A tethering line on a mechanical pulley should be standard equipment in any kinda underwater job site like this to me

Anything goes wrong you pull out those brothers immediately

I’m TOTALLY against the use of scuba gear during commercial diving operation, but in this case the use of scuba diving equipment has nothing to do with this accident.
Here, the divers were working inside a hyperbaric habitat that was continuously ventilated with fresh air and was equipped with light, communication and a CCTV which allowed the surface to see what happened inside the chamber.
When working inside a dry chamber it is the habit (except if you have only a few minutes to work or if you’re working inside a toxic atmosphere) to remove your diving gear which permits to work more comfortably (for sometimes several hours).
So the ones that suggest that these divers should have wear a diving helmet or a band mask are people that have never done such type of work because I invite them to wear such an equipment at the surface during let’s say just one hour.
And if these divers had indeed worked with a supplied diving equipment (umbilical + helmet or band mask) inside the hyperbaric habitat like some have suggested in their report then most probably the five of them would have died.

[PapyOne]

The pressure on habitat side of the plug was ok. Pressure in underside of plug was okay.
The difference was what it was.


The issue was the plug was deteriorated past the work life and ended up becoming dislodged, because the horizontal line had both gas and liquid, in an unsettled manner.


The lil gurgles was enough to cause the liquid leg to drop and dislodge the plug.

The paria side reps were not experienced enough to recognize the POTENTIAL hazards.

The reps were hired because of insufficient concern by management. Management not concerned cause they also don't know what the faq they doin.



These kinds if incidents will continue unless they get experienced people to enforce safety measures

The pressure on habitat side of the plug was ok. Pressure in underside of plug was okay.
The difference was what it was.

The pressure on the top of the plug was 1,45 bars.
The pressure on the underside of the plug was 1 bar
This means that the pressure on the 30” inflatable plug was equal to about 2,1 T.

The issue was the plug was deteriorated past the work life and ended up becoming dislodged, because the horizontal line had both gas and liquid, in an unsettled manner.

Wrong: If we except the presence of some barrels of residual crude oil, the pipeline was completely empty and only contained air at the atmospheric pressure.
The plug was in good condition and by surveying regularly the internal pressure it could have stayed in the riser during many more days without any problem (these plugs can stay in position during months).

The lil gurgles was enough to cause the liquid leg to drop and dislodge the plug.

Wrong: The plug was dislodge because the diver released its internal pressure.
This means that when the pressure inside the plug was too low to maintain a seal it was pushed (sucked) inside the riser.

The paria side reps were not experienced enough to recognize the POTENTIAL hazards.
Correct: The Paria reps but also LMCS.

[pugboy]

papy how come they didn’t invite you to the coe to say your .02

[DMan7]

The man joined yesterday too yes, sounds suspicious to me.

[sMASH]

Oh Pappy one eye.


The plug was a distance down in the vertical section of piping... Not near where the guys was working.


I can't Remember the distance, but also any distance past arms reach,ike 3ft, is outside of whst thry went to do..
They went to weld in the habitat, not inside the pipe, and subsequently got sucked in.

If u could reference where the plug was, could confirm thst

[PapyOne]

The man joined yesterday too yes, sounds suspicious to me.

I didn’t register earlier because I only discovered this forum a few days ago.
But as I’m a retired commercial diver that has worked in that industry from 1966 to 2013 I’m still concerned with all what goes around diver’s safety and that’s why I’ve been following this sad case since the very first day.
Delta P hazard is the biggest killer within the commercial diving sector, since 1975 it has killed no less than 140 commercial divers.

[PapyOne]

Oh Pappy one eye.


The plug was a distance down in the vertical section of piping... Not near where the guys was working.


I can't Remember the distance, but also any distance past arms reach,ike 3ft, is outside of whst thry went to do..
They went to weld in the habitat, not inside the pipe, and subsequently got sucked in.

If u could reference where the plug was, could confirm thst

I would rather say 4-5 ft. that’s why I’m more inclined to think that the nipple was ripped off by the retaining chain.
The weld was completed (from inside the habitat) on the 15 February.
On the 25 the 4 + 1 divers were inside the habitat to finish the job that’s to say to connect the riser extension to the new flange they welded a few days before.

[Val]

Y'all are arguing about the wrong thing IMHO. The cause is now irrelevant. The more important matter is that of the recovery attempt, and the treatment of the families who are left without their loved ones.

I am of the opinion that quiet compensation should've been paid long ago via extra-judiciary settlement, and there is still an opportunity to do so. If it goes to court, it will create precedent that I'm sure other employers may not want.

[Habit7]

Y'all are arguing about the wrong thing IMHO. The cause is now irrelevant. The more important matter is that of the recovery attempt, and the treatment of the families who are left without their loved ones.

I am of the opinion that quiet compensation should've been paid long ago via extra-judiciary settlement, and there is still an opportunity to do so. If it goes to court, it will create precedent that I'm sure other employers may not want.

I think the cause is relevant. If LMCS went on a side quest mission rather than what Paria outlined, that will determine Paria’s culpability.

I brought up the issue of recovery. I am of the opinion that it was not as easy as letting family members jump back in the pipe to see what they could do. My concerns are how will a diver swim backwards in an oily pipe? Do we have divers trained to perform that rescue or are going to do it live for the first time? Plus there are the decompression issues that others cited.

Why should Paria be the first to compensate? What about LMCS’s insurance? What about LMCS commitment to its employees?

Ppl need to know that a CoE findings are not as binding as a court of law. This still has years of litigation remaining.