Egypt tourist boat latest: Survivors used ‘20cm air pockets’ to stay alive in ‘complete darkness’
Two Britons are still unaccounted for after a yacht sunk in Egypt’s Red Sea
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Your support makes all the difference.Survivors of the sunken Egyptian vessel which capsized in the Red Sea used 20cm air pockets to stay alive for around 30 hours, a family member has revealed.
The survivors battled for their lives in “complete darkness”, as they shared a small pocket of a cabin in which they were trapped for more than a day in “cold water”, Hussam al-Faramawy told The Times.
Mr al-Faramawy’s son Youssef, was a diving instructor rescued from the yacht. Youssef had “sent out a distress signal” along with the vessel’s captain, before going to help a man and woman who were “trapped in a cabin”.
He was among the five people rescued on Tuesday over a day after the boat capsized. This brought the total number of people rescued to 33, after 28 were rescued on Monday.
Four bodies were recovered from the boat on Tuesday, with seven people still remain missing.
According to the AFP news agency, two Britons were among those rescued on Monday. But two Britons remain unaccounted for, and according to some reports are among the seven missing.
Egypt tourist boat: Everything we know about the incident in the Red Sea
Two Britons are among the missing after a dive boat was hit by a “huge wave” and capsized off the Red Sea coast of Egypt on Monday 25 November.
In a rescue operation, 28 people were saved from the Sea Story before she sank, according to the governor of the Red Sea region, Amr Hanafi.
These are the key questions and answers.
The Independent’s Travel Correspondent Simon Calder reports:
Egypt tourist boat: Everything we know about the incident in the Red Sea
Foreign Office warns that ‘overcrowding and poor safety standards have caused accidents on Red Sea ferries and Nile cruises’
Is the Red Sea a dangerous part of the world for shipping?
Not especially – except for military activity by the Yemeni Houthi rebels in the past year – but there can be some intense thunderstorms.
The worst maritime disaster in the Red Sea occurred in 2006, when a ferry from Duba in Saudi Arabia to Safaga in Egypt sank after a fire on board and subsequent efforts to extinguish it. Around 1,000 passengers lost their lives, with bad weather thought to have contributed to the appallingly high death toll.
The Foreign Office warns: “Overcrowding and poor safety standards have caused accidents on Red Sea ferries and Nile cruises.”
In June 2023 three British tourists died in a fire aboard another dive boat, Hurricane, close to where the Sea Story sank.
Five rescued in Egypt 24 hours after Red Sea boat disaster - but two Britons unaccounted for
Four bodies were recovered and five survivors rescued from the water 24 hours after a yacht sank in the Red Sea when it got caught in rough weather.
The number of survivors now stands at 33 – including 28 who were rescued on Monday – with seven people still missing amid a major search operation led by Egyptian naval forces.
Two Brits among the 16 people originally missing on Monday have not yet been accounted for.
Sea Story, a live-aboard boat which was carrying 44 people on a five-day diving trip, sent a distress signal after a large wave crashed into the boat and caused it to capsize, according to survivors’ accounts of what happened.
Read yesterday’s full report:
Five rescued in Egypt 24 hours after Red Sea boat sinking but 2 Brits still missing
Five people were rescued 24 hours after the Sea Story yacht sunk in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt while 31 tourists and 13 crew members were on a diving trip
Reason for capsize was ‘probably not a wave’, says oceanographer
An oceanographer has cast doubt on the claim that a huge wage caused the Sea Story ship to sink, saying the wind conditions weren’t strong enough.
“We are getting the same story coming out, mainly from the governor of the region, saying a ‘huge wave’ hit the ship,” he told Sky News.
“There’s no evidence of that. The Egyptian Met Office did issue a storm warning, but that was for the Red Sea and the Mediterranean generally.”
The wind conditions for the region around Marsa Alarm “weren’t that strong” and “wouldn’t create these alleged three- to four-metre waves”, he added.
“I still feel that this is probably not a wave that caused the capsize. We need to see an investigation coming out of this. It’s still early days, but the information coming out from the Egyptian authorities is still very sparse.
“We don’t know where the vessel is, we don’t know, is it sunk? What depth of water is it in? The information is being filtered by the Egyptian authorities, there’s been no direct statements from people from the boat itself, it’s all been through the authorities.”
Everything we know so far
Here’s all you need to know about the boat which capsized in the Red Sea on Monday:
- Sea Story, an Egyptian-owned boat, had set sail from Porto Ghalib on a five-day diving trip, carrying 31 tourists and 13 crew.
- This was despite warnings by the Egyptian Meteorological Authority on Saturday, advising against maritime activity on Sunday and Monday.
- At 5:30am on Monday, the ship sent out a distress signal, sparking a major rescue effort led by an Egyptian navy warship El Fateh and military aircraft.
- Survivors report that the boat was hit by a huge wave. Wave heights of 3-4 meters (10-13 feet) and wind speeds of 34 knots were reported in the area on Sunday by the Egyptian Red Sea Ports Authority.
- The boat capsized within five to seven minutes. Some people were reportedly in their cabins at the time the wave hit. It sank off the popular tourist destination of Marsa Alam.
- By the end of Monday, 28 people had been rescued and 16 people remained missing, including two Brits. Tourists on the boat included nationals from the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, China, Slovakia, Spain and Ireland.
- A technical defect on the boat was ruled out by the Red Sea region’s governor, Amr Hanafi, who said all the necessary safety permits had been obtained.
- Embassies from around the world confirmed on Monday that they were offering consular assistance following the incident.
- On Tuesday, four bodies were recovered and five more people were rescued, bringing the total of survivors to 33.
- As of Wednesday morning, the search for seven remaining missing people goes on.
Sun rises on a third day of major search
Seven people are still missing out at sea after the Sea Story vessel capsized on Monday.
The sun has now risen on the third day of the major search, led by Egyptian naval forces, in which 33 people have been rescued and four bodies have been recovered.
The picture below was taken from the beach where survivors of the boat were brought to safety on Monday.
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