Egypt tourist boat latest: Diver reveals survivors pulled from cabins 40 feet underwater on sunken yacht
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.A diver has revealed that survivors were “trapped inside the boat cabins” of the sunken Egyptian vessel in the Red Sea.
The Sea Story boat capsized with 44 people onboard early on Monday morning. While 28 people were rescued on Monday and five on Tuesday, the authorities have recovered four bodies.
Seven people remain missing with the search efforts still underway, the Egyptian military spokesman said. Two Britons who were on the boat are yet to be accounted for, and it is not clear whether they are among the dead - who have not been identified - or remain missing.
According to diver Khattab al-Faramawy, the yacht is largely submerged with just half a metre poking above water.
“We dived 12m (40ft) under water - the survivors were trapped inside the boat cabins,” he told the BBC on Wednesday. It was a “complicated mission” as they had to “find our way into the darkness”.
One of the people Mr al-Faramaway rescued was his nephew, who got locked in one of the cabins while he was trying to save the passengers on board.
Survivors ‘used tiny 20cm air pocket to stay alive'
The father of Youssef al-Faramawy, one of the divers on the Sea Story yacht who was rescued by his own uncle, has revealed further details about how people survived for an entire day in the sunken boat.
Tiny air pockets in the corner of the room allowed them to survive while trapped in the cabins. Only around 20cm of the inside of the cabins were left unflooded, Hussam al-Faramawy told The Times.
Youssef “sent out a distress signal” along with Captain Alaa Hussein, Mr al-Faramawy said.
He then went to help a man and woman who were “trapped in a cabin” but the “water flooded the boat”.
They survived because “about 20cm inside the cabin were still not flooded, which helped them breathe and stay alive until rescue teams arrived”, he added.
Full report: Survivors of sunken Red Sea yacht spent a day trapped in cabins underwater, diver reveals
Read the full report from my colleague Alex Croft below:
Red Sea yacht survivors trapped in cabins underwater for a day
Two Britons who were on the boat remain unaccounted for
Two Britons rescued, two still missing
News has emerged that two British people were among those rescued from the Sea Story yacht on Monday.
A hospital source told AFP news agency that six tourists and three Egyptians were admitted with minor injuries on Monday.
Among the tourists were “two Germans, two Britons, a Spaniard and a Swiss”, the hospital administrator told the agency, requesting anonymity.
Two Britons are still unaccounted for. Some reports have suggested they are among the seven people still missing, but identities of the four bodies recovered on Tuesday have not been confirmed.
What caused the yacht to sink?
It was not immediately clear what caused the four-deck motor yacht to sink after it departed from the Egyptian coastal town of Marsa Alam on Monday.
The Egyptian Meteorological Authority on Saturday warned about rough weather and large waves, advising against maritime activity for Sunday and Monday on the Red Sea.
A surviving crew member also said the boat was “hit by a wave in the middle of the night, throwing the vessel on its side”.
Other survivors said a “high sea wave” hit the vessel and caused it to capsize in “about five or seven minutes”, according to the governor of the Red Sea region Amr Hanafi.
But an oceaonographer has cast doubt on whether this is what caused the vessel to sink, suggesting the wind conditions would not have been severe enough to produce a wave capable of capsizing a yacht.
Speaking to Sky News, Simon Boxall called for an investigation into the incident.
Diver rescued his nephew from sunken yacht
Khattab al-Faramawy, the diver who revealed that survivors were pulled from their cabins where they had been trapped after the Sea Story vessel sunk, has shared more details of the rescue effort.
His 23-year-old nephew Youssef, a diving instructor, was among those that he rescued on Tuesday.
Youssef’s father, Hussam, broke down in tears after discovering his son was alive, and only told his son’s mother what was happening “after I realised that [Youssef] survived”.
“He was trying to save the passengers on board but got locked in one of the cabins,” Mr al-Faramawy (Hussam) told the BBC.
Youssef is being treated in a local hospital, the broadcaster reports.
Video: Egypt tourist yacht survivor’s first words as five more rescued after boat sinks
Egypt tourist yacht survivor’s first words as five more rescued after boat sinks
A survivor of the Egypt tourist yacht that sank in the Red Sea off Egypt on Monday (26 November) thanked his rescuers in an emotional exchange on Tuesday. The Belgian tourist told officials "It's very nice to be back" as five people were rescued alive, bringing the total number of survivors to 33. Two British passengers remain among seven missing people as the search enters a critical third day. German and Polish nationals are believed to make up the others who are unaccounted for.
Survivors were ‘trapped inside cabins’, says rescue diver
A diver who rescued survivors of the Sea Story yacht has revealed that some were “trapped inside the boat cabins” before being rescued.
The yacht is largely submerged, with less than half a metre of the boat still above water, Khattab al-Faramawy told the BBC.
“We dived 12m (40ft) under water - the survivors were trapped inside the boat cabins,” he said, adding that it was a “complicated mission” due to darkness.
“My heart goes out to the families of the dead, and I hope they will find all the missing passengers alive,” he added.
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,” Simon Boxall told Sky News on Wednesday morning.
“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.”
Pictured: How the rescue unfolded
What is the timescale of the Red Sea boat disaster?
On Saturday, the Egyptian Meteorological Authority forecast high seas on the Red Sea, with 40mph winds and 12-foot waves, and advised against maritime activity for Sunday and Monday.
On Sunday, Sea Story left Port Ghalib, just north of the resort of Marsa Alam, on a routine five-day voyage. On board: 13 crew and 31 divers.
Early on Monday morning the vessel capsized after being struck by a large wave, according to the accounts of survivors. The crew managed to send out a distress call at around 5:30am, and 28 of the people on board were rescued that day.
Search efforts continued into the evening on Monday, before they resumed on Tuesday morning.
On Tuesday, Egyptian authorities recovered four bodies and rescued five people, bringing the total up to 33.
Going into the third day of the search on Wednesday, seven people remained missing.
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