A diver has revealed incredible details of the operation to rescue survivors in a tourist yacht that sank in the Red Sea, as the search for seven people who remain missing continued for its third day.
Khattab al-Faramawy, a professional licensed diver whose nephew was on board the Sea Story boat, recalled finding survivors “trapped inside the boat cabins” around 24 hours after the vessel had sunk.
The Sea Story sank in the early hours of Monday morning after sending a distress signal at 5:30am. On board the boat were 44 people, including 31 passengers – two of them British – and 13 crew members.
On Monday, 28 people were rescued in a major operation led by Egyptian naval forces and the Red Sea Governorate. Five more people were rescued on Tuesday, while four bodies were recovered – and currently remain unidentified.
Mr Faramawy recalled diving 12 metres (40ft) below the surface on Tuesday to find survivors still stuck inside the cabins of the ship, which was submerged except for around half a metre that was poking out above the water.
He told the BBC that it was a “complicated mission” because of how dark it was under the water. But he was nonetheless able to save his 23-year-old nephew Youssef, who had been working as a diving instructor on the boat.
Youssef’s father, Hussam, who broke down in tears when he found out his son was alive, said Youssef was locked in one of the boat’s cabins while “trying to save the passengers”.
On Wednesday, search efforts continued, but at the time of publication there had been no update on the seven people who remained missing.
Footage emerged of one survivor, a Belgian tourist, telling officials that it was “very nice to be back” after he was brought to safety by rescuers. He recalled that he had been “shaking with cold” from being in the sea, and thanked the Egyptian military and emergency services for the warm shower after his rescue.
Uncertainty remains as to the exact cause of the sinking of the Sea Story. On Monday, Red Sea governor Amr Hanafi said a huge wave had struck the boat and caused it to capsize, according to survivors’ accounts.
But oceanographer Simon Boxall cast doubt on these claims, suggesting that the wind conditions would not have been strong enough to produce a wave that could capsize the yacht.
Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday morning, he said: “We are getting the same story coming out, mainly from the governor of the region, saying a ‘huge wave’ hit the ship.
“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 Alam “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.”
