Eight people, including two Britons, remain missing following the sinking of the Red Sea dive liveaboard Sea Story yesterday (25 November). Four bodies are reported to have been recovered so far.
The 44m vessel was carrying 45 people, 31 of them guests and the rest Egyptian crew-members, when the incident was called in at around 5.30am, as previously reported on Divernet. The boat had left Port Ghalib, north of Marsa Alam, on a five-day trip, heading south towards the Fury Shoals area. It would later have swung back north to reach Hurghada.
Also read: British divers missing from Sea Story named
Survivors of the sinking had been found off the Wadi el-Gemal reserve between Marsa Alam and Hamata, with those in most urgent need of treatment being airlifted to hospital and others picked up by an Egyptian naval frigate and brought to Hurghada.
The search operation is being co-ordinated by the Naval Base Control Centre and involves various branches of the Egyptian armed forces.
Planned itinerary
The four-deck, timber-hulled liveaboard had pursued its planned itinerary in the face of Egyptian Meteorological Authority warnings against maritime activity on 24 and 25 November because of danger from high waves – although Dive Pro Liveaboard, the Hurghada-registered operator of Sea Story, has denied that it had taken any undue risks.
In the event a possible 4m wave was thought to have caught the vessel side-on, causing it to capsize within an estimated seven minutes – and likely leaving some passengers still in their cabins.
A Finnish national and four crew are thought to be among those still missing from Sea Story, along with the two British guests. The Red Sea Governorate has indicated that the vessel had also been carrying divers travelling on American, Belgian, Chinese, German, Irish, Polish, Slovakian, Spanish and Swiss passports.
Sea Legend
Dive Pro Liveaboards also operates the Red Sea vessels Sea Legend, Tillis and Coral Dreams. In February this year the 42m steel-hulled Sea Legend caught fire during a week-long trip from Hurghada to the Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone, resulting in the death of one of its guests, a German female solo traveller.
At the end of October another Red Sea liveaboard, Seaduction, sank on a charter trip out of Hamata, after its captain appeared to have disregarded severe weather warnings. The 18 divers and crew escaped, though most lost their belongings and had to spend some eight hours adrift in small boats before being rescued.
Divernet has approached Dive Pro Liveaboard for comment on the incident.
Also on Divernet: ‘OUR DIVE LIVEABOARD CAPSIZED: NOW WHAT?’, EGYPTIAN LIVEABOARD SINKS IN DEEP SOUTH, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SEADUCTION?
