A 27m Red Sea dive liveaboard called Sea Spirit is reported by local press to have started taking on water and sinking in a remote part of the Gulf of Suez yesterday evening (14 July). Five crew-members were onboard at the time but no guests.
The vessel was off Ras Ghareb on the gulf’s western shore when it issued a Mayday call.
The signal was picked up by staff working for the Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company and Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation operating in the busy Gebel El Zeit oilfield area. They were able to send boats to the scene quickly and all the crew were initially reported to have been helped to safety without any casualties.
However, a single local news outlet later quoted Red Sea Governor Walid El Barqy stating that one crew-member had in fact died. This report remains unconfirmed and no further details of the incident or the state of the boat have been released. An official investigation is said to be underway, though the results of such probes in Egypt are rarely made public.
Sea Spirit, which can carry up to 15 guests and operates a range of Red Sea diving itineraries, is run by Luxury Divers of Hurghada.
The sinking appears to be the first involving an Egyptian Red Sea dive-boat since the Sea Story liveaboard disaster off Marsa Alam in November 2024, in which 11 people ultimately lost their lives.
