A British coroner has expressed frustration over the difficulty of obtaining information from the relevant authorities in Egypt, more than two years on from the fire that engulfed the Red Sea liveaboard Hurricane and brought about the deaths of three British divers.
Coroner Katrina Hepburn presided over an inquest into the death of one of those divers, 73-year-old Steven Hill, at Kent & Medway Coroner’s Court in Maidstone on 30 October. She said that despite prolonged efforts, information and evidence that might have assisted her investigations had not been forthcoming.
“It has not been possible to obtain any documentation from Egypt on this matter over the months and years since this tragic accident has occurred,” she said.
The lack of transparency left families without clear answers, said the coroner. An electrical fault was suspected, rather than established, as the source of the fire.
Skipped the dive
The fatal incident occurred off the Egyptian coast on the morning of 11 June, 2023, as reported on Divernet. Hill, a dog-trainer from Ashford in Kent and a scuba diver of more than 30 years, had decided to stay in his cabin while 12 of the passengers went for an early-morning dive at Elphinstone Reef.
When the fire broke out the divers were able to be evacuated by RIB to another vessel nearby. Attempts had been made to reach Hill and two other missing guests before the captain and crew had to abandon ship.
The bodies of Hill and the other British divers who had elected to miss the 6.30am dive were recovered in the following days. Christina Quinn and Paul Darling were also presumed to have been below decks when the fire started, though this could not be confirmed.
A post mortem examination took place after Hill’s body was repatriated to the UK, but its condition by the time it arrived meant that the medical cause of death could not be determined.
“However, in view of the circumstances it is likely that death resulted from prolonged exposure to heat and effects of the fire fumes,” said Hepburn.
At the time of the incident the Egyptian authorities and police had been said to be launching an investigation into the cause of the fire, with Hurricane being towed to port for examination.
Following a spate of liveaboard incidents in the Red Sea, last year the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch made its concerns public and set them out to the Egyptian Authority for Maritime Safety (EAMS), requesting full participation in its investigations.
Earlier this year MAIB warned divers visiting Egypt to exercise “extreme caution when choosing a boat” and issued a safety bulletin on the subject.
