Dive Pro Liveaboard has lost 2 boats this year. Another one caught fire in 2022. In November, Sea Story tipped and capsized in open water. Eleven tourists are presumed dead, plus a number of crew.
Dive Pro Liveaboard has lost 2 boats this year in the Red Sea. 12 tourists and a number of crew have died, yet the company is still taking bookings for Christmas
The Red Sea is a magical place. It’s in the mountains of Sinai where God first spoke with Moses and gave him the 10 commandments. The beautiful people, the food, the natural mix between sea and desert. The colors of purple, pinks, yellows, oranges, white and black. The coral reefs everywhere and diving in the Blue Hole is an adventure of a lifetime for many divers who do return again and again. Especially Europeans where Cairo is a 5 hour plane ride away.
But am Egyptian dive holiday went wrong for 33 tourists this past November when the second boat in the same fleet owned by the dive company Dive Pro Liveaboard listed, capsized and sunk. The accident happened on November 25, a Monday, in the early hours of the morning, as early as 2:30am near the area of Marsa Alam about 20 km out into the Red Sea.
Location of the Sea Story tragedy on the Red Sea
The Egyptian Navy wasn’t called until a reported 5:30am and helicopters didn’t show up until about 10am or 11am, according to survivors. We first reported on the dive boat accident here right after it happened. Soon after, we were made aware that there were suspicious reports of the dive boat not suited to open seas because it had no keel and was refurbished with an extra floor making it top heavy (read here). Soon after a German diver reached out about a thesis a German student was working on documenting the hazards of Red Sea diving. He offered some solutions for fixing the growing concerns among dive boats and a dive boat checklist – you can get it here.
What we do know is that on Monday, 23 people out of 44 onboard, including crew and tourists, made their way to safety on rescue boats. The next day, some 36 hours later rescue crews pulled out 5 survivors, 4 tourists and one crew, a nephew of one of the rescue team. We have the story of one of the survivors, Michael Miles from Vaud, Switzerland, here, as told to us by his daughter.
In total there are 11 dead and/or missing from Germany, the UK, Poland and Egypt.
The dive operating company Dive Pro Liveaboard and the company that has facilitated the bookings of the trips have not responded to survivors requests for compensation or help. They have not responded to our requests to be interviewed. The Egyptian Navy’s emailed bounced. Dive Pro Liveaboard is based in Hurghada and based on its website is run by Ali Aref. They are still taking bookings for their remaining 2 boats.
“Crazy! Insanely bad management,” says a Reddit commenter. “They also ran a boat Sea Legend that caught fire in Feb where one German diver died. And in 2022, another of their boat also caught fire. How are they still allowed to operate? Makes you question the local systems and enforcement too.”
Both companies Dive Pro Liveaboard and the Dutch-based Liveaboard.com are continuing to book dive trips on risky boats despite the concerns. We have here an eyewitness who travelled on the Tillis, one of the boats being offered by Liveaboard.com currently on its Holland-based booking platform noting how they feared for their life on that boat. Yet only positive reviews are shown on the site.
Sea Story survivor Michael Miles told his daughter he booked on the Tillis (read here one tourists account of lack of safety standards on the boat) but was transferred to Sea Story. See screenshots from December 8 below that bookings are still being made for the dive boat company and if you read comments you will see that Liveaboard.com and Dive Pro Liveaboard in Egypt have a history of switching out boats. Why?
Liveaboard.com still carrying on booking holidays for the Dive Pro Liveaboard which lost 2 boats in the last year from catastrophic accidents that have killed 12 tourists and many crew.
Tillis booking liveaboard.com transferred to Sea Story boat on arrival. This was a common thing, as noted in the comments. Guest Michael Miles was switched from Tillis to Sea Story when he goat to the boat. Tillis went out on the trip but was not involved in the accident.
The fatal accident on November 25 has left dozens of survivors and the families of those who have died looking for answers and in the very least some financial compensation. Over the last 2 weeks, there are the questions we have collected, still unanswered. If you have any information about the Sea Story, answer in the comments below or email us [email protected].
Open questions after the Sea Story dive boat tragedy
Where did the accident actually happen?
By the time the Navy arrived to the sinking boat several hours after it capsized, they cordoned off the area around the boat, and wouldn’t allow rescue crews from other dive companies in for another day, some 36 hours, on Tuesday. The reason is that there was a risk of a diver bubble entering an air pocket and changing the pressure in the boat. The whole boat could go down.
One source says the boat was in 12 to 15 meters of water, another said 1000 meters. What was it? In deep open water or closer to the shore? If you look at the maps of the Indian Ocean/Red Sea areas you don’t need to boat long to get into water reaching hundreds of meters of depth. Why did it take the Navy 36 hours to agree to let divers inside even though survivors could be heard knocking and whistling from the outside?
Eyewitness accounts put the boat as close to 20km to shore and as far as 80km. A shipping boat was seen passing by at 10am by the survivors curious to know the exact location of the wreck. Marsa Alam sea Story dive boat nautical maps by fishing-app.gpsnauticalcharts.com.
Sea Story travelled from Port Ghalib at Marsa Shouna around 9 to 10pm. They were supposed to arrive at Sataya Reef after 6 or 7 hours at sea early in the morning. Around 2:30 am the boat went down within minutes (as many as 10), but the parts of the bottom of the boat floated about the surface. This is information supplied by survivors interviewed by Green Prophet.
Sea Story’s approximate location in the Red Sea/Indian Ocean. One source estimates 80 km out, another 20 km out in the sea. Depths are around 600m. Why is it reported that the boat sunk in 12 to 15 meters?
One survivor told Green Prophet that at 10:00 am a helicopter arrived at the wreck. Shortly after, he says (maybe one hour), the motor boats of the Masa Nakari, a dive center brought the survivors from the life rafts to the Polish liveaboard.
Why did it take the Navy so long to let rescue divers in?
Rescue divers reported hearing knocking sounds coming out of the boat, meaning there were people trapped inside after the initial rescue. From Monday there was knocking coming out of My Sea Story. Why did the Navy only let the private rescuers in on Tuesday?
Why did it take so long for the Navy to come? The boat started sinking around 2:30 am. The Navy showed up at around 10am or 11.
Why does the Navy have no dive guides? Or equipment?
Questions about the boat operator
Why did the Tillis and My Sea Story go out when there were warnings and advisors against going to sea?
Was the cook driving the boat?
Why was an inexperienced captain in charge of such a large vessel?
Where is the captain of the ship? Is he on the run? A Facebook eulogy by a friend suggested he killed himself; others say he was in jail. Maybe he is in hiding?
Why are people booking on one boat and getting transferred to another?
How are they still booking trips on Tillis?
Why is Liveaboard.com not refunding money to people afraid of the Dive Pro company in the Egypt who have booked trips on boats like Tillus, also unsafe remodeled boats?
Who is certifying an ancient dive boat as seaworthy?
Why was My Sea Story away from the dive site and why did they separate from Tillis, the sister boat on Sunday?
The Navy and the Egyptian Authorities
Why are there no images coming out from the Navy of the boat in the water?
Where is the wreck now?
Why are they hiding the original location of the wreck?
Why has the public not been told if the boat finally sank?
Why were rescued passengers denied their passports to go home unless they signed a waver?
One diver reported a hole in the boat? Was there a hole in the boat?
Why didn’t the marines try to prop up the boat from sinking? Use floatation equipment?
Where is the crew? Why aren’t they allowed to talk with the media?
Why are the actual divers who went into the Sea Story and saved lives, not being celebrated? Their contribution being told?
Who will compensate tourists and the crew who lost their lives?
Some speculate that the Navy has towed the boat from the site where the boat overturned into shore, close to a reef. Why?
The rescue team that went in rescued 5 people. They found 4 bodies. There were no other bodies on the boat. Were there people still alive in their cabins? According to this rescue story (we interviewed the daughter) the rescue crew could not get into all the cabins. Did they give up on them? Were the risks too great?
There is a debate on whether the boat was in 12-15 meters or in 1000 meters of water. This fact could have changed rescue strategies. Some sources say the boat was close to shore near a reef and eventually sunk in 12 to 15 meters of water. Other say 20 to 80km out in the open water, at about 1000 m depth and the boat was towed back to shore and sunk near a reef by the Navy.
December 10, update: We attempted to book a dive trip on the Tillis through Dive Pro directly. The reply from a rep named Zozo was “Which week, which route, here in Egypt or in KSA?”
If you have anything to contribute to this evolving story, send us an email: [email protected]
