Three bodies have been recovered from an overturned tourist boat that sank yesterday off Egypt’s Red Sea coast, and 13 people remain missing, according to Red Sea Governor Amr Hanafi.
The ship named Sea Story reportedly sank near Shaab Sadayah, a coral reef popular for diving trips, off the Marsa Alam resort in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Two British tourists were reportedly rescued, while two other Britons were among those missing.
The nationalities of the three people whose bodies have been found have not yet been confirmed.
Rescue teams had been “intensifying their efforts” to find those missing after the 34-meter-long ship sank.
Those who escaped from the ship said an “offshore wave” had hit it and caused it to capsize in “about five or seven minutes,” Hanafi said.
Some passengers were inside the cabins, “so they could not leave the ship,” he added in a statement on Facebook.
The incident occurred during adverse weather conditions, and the Egyptian Red Sea Port Authority on Sunday reported waves between 10 and 13 feet high and wind speeds of 34 knots in the area, leading to the closure of maritime traffic.
The ship named Sea Story (in the photo) had 31 tourists of different nationalities as well as 13 crew members on board when it sank.
Medics and people wait for possible survivors after a ship sank in a port in Marsa Alam, Red Sea governorate, Egypt, Nov. 25, 2024.
Survivors of the sinking ship rest in a port in Marsa Alam, Red Sea governorate, Egypt, Nov. 25, 2024.
The ship was carrying 31 tourists of various nationalities, including four British and two Americans, as well as 13 Egyptian crew members, according to local media Masrawy (in the photo, people waiting on the beach for the survivors).
Doctors wait for possible survivors after a ship sank in a port in Marsa Alam, Egypt’s Red Sea governorate, on November 25, 2024.
A surviving crew member said the boat was “hit by a wave in the middle of the night, capsizing the boat,” according to a manager at a dive center near the rescue operations.
The ship departed on a diving trip from Ghalib Port in Marsa Alam on November 24 and was scheduled to arrive at Hurghada Marina on November 29.
Some of the survivors were reportedly flown back to shore by helicopter for medical care, while others were transported by another ship.
The search was reportedly hampered by bad weather, which came after authorities in Hurghada, the Red Sea capital, closed maritime activities and the city’s port on Sunday, also due to “poor meteorological conditions”.
But the winds around Marsa Alam had remained favorable until Sunday night, the diving director told AFP, before calming down again in the morning.
By Monday afternoon, it became increasingly “unlikely that the 17 missing people would be rescued after 12 hours in the water,” he said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The company that operates the yacht, Dive Pro Liveaboard in Hurghada, Egypt, said yesterday it had no information on the matter.
Hanafi said the ship had passed its last safety inspection in March 2024 and no technical problems were reported. The ship, owned by an Egyptian national, was 34 meters long and had received a one-year safety certificate from the Maritime Safety Authority.
Ship tracking website Marine Traffic showed that the last location shared by the ship was somewhere off Hurghada.
The Sea Story is a 144-foot pleasure craft built in 2022, which can carry up to 36 passengers
The Sea Story is a 144-foot, four-deck pleasure vessel built in 2022 and can carry up to 36 passengers.
The ship has a total of 18 double cabins with private bathrooms on board, which are used for tourists who go on diving trips hoping to explore the reefs of the Red Sea.
Authorities have not confirmed the nationalities of the tourists and it is not clear who is among those rescued and who remains missing.
The Chinese embassy in Egypt said on Monday that two of its citizens were “in good health” after being “rescued in the sinking accident of a cruise ship in the Red Sea,” Chinese state media reported.
Ship tracking website Marine Traffic showed that the last location shared by the ship was somewhere off Hurghada.
The Sea Story passenger dining room is shown above.
Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Pawel Wronski said authorities “have information that two of the tourists may have had Polish citizenship.”
The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to the AFP news agency that one of its citizens is also among the missing.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development spokesperson told MailOnline: “We are providing consular support to a number of British nationals and their families following an incident in Egypt and are in contact with local authorities.”
It is not the first time this year that a tourist diving boat has sunk in the Red Sea. Earlier this month, 30 people were rescued from a sinking dive boat near the Red Sea’s famous Deadalus Reef.
In June, two dozen French tourists were safely evacuated before their boat sank in a similar accident.