LEAD seaman Andre Leidgewood has said the Coast Guard never prevented any rescue divers from entering the water to try to save divers who were sucked into a 30-inch undersea pipeline at Pointe-a-Pierre on February 25, nor were they instructed to by Paria Fuel Trading Co Ltd.
He was speaking at the Commission of Enquiry (CoE) into the tragedy at Tower D of the Port of Spain International Waterfront Centre on Monday.
Last week, LMCS dive operator Andrew Farah testified to the enquiry that members of the Coast Guard told them not to enter the pipeline when they were about to put their rescue plan into action.
In addition, he said the Coast Guard members said they themselves could not take over the rescue, because they were not trained to enter pipelines.
Leidgewood, a member of the Coast Guard for 16 years, had a different recollection of events.
He said he first got a call around 4pm saying some divers "went underwater and didn't come back up" at Paria's facility.
He said it took approximately 45-50 minutes to get there with his five team members – only one of whom was a diver – as he was onshore at the time he was alerted.
When he got there, he said, he was shocked to learn the divers in question were stuck in a pipeline. He had not been given this information before he arrived.
He told those present he was not a diver, and that the Coast Guard diver was not trained to enter pipelines after Paria asked for the Coast Guard to take over the operation.
He then returned to base with his previous team to get a new team of ten divers and two other crew members.
Asked by the CoE's lead counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, whether the Coast Guard prevented anyone from diving, he said, "I can't recall that at all. No one from the Coast Guard (did that)."
Maharaj reminded him that he was not at the berth for about two hours, since he had to return to base ,but he maintained that all crew members had returned with him and he could not recall denying any diver access to the water.
CoE chairman Jerome Lynch, KC, told Leidgewood there was a different between saying one doesn't recall something happening and saying with certainty that something did not happen.
After this, he asked the seaman which wording he would prefer to use going forward, and he said, "I do not recall."
He said there was a bigger Coast Guard vessel some distance away from the berth but it could not enter the platform because of its size.
He confirmed that his crew, apart from the divers and himself, were armed, but said at no point were their weapons used to intimidate or threaten anyone.
Attorney Prakash Ramadhar asked Leidgewood if he was aware that the Coast Guard can use "deadly force" if necessary, to which he said yes. Ramadhar went further to remind him that two weeks before the Paria tragedy, one-year-old Venezuelan Ya Elvis Santoyo was shot dead as the Coast Guard intercepted and fired at a boat carrying over 30 Venezuelan migrants.
Leidgewood said he could not speak to what had been done by any members of the Coast
