By DIVE Staff
A German woman is missing, presumed dead following a fire onboard the Dive Pro Liveaboard-operated MY Sea Legend, which caught fire during the early hours of 22 February, and sank shortly afterwards.
The liveaboard departed from Hurghada on 17 February for a tour of the Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone reefs, and was just 3km from shore when the fire broke out. 17 passengers of varying nationalities, 12 Egyptian crew and two Egyptian dive guides were on board.
According to a report in the German scuba magazine Taucher.net, eyewitness statements suggest the fire started in the kitchen, and quickly spread. Those on board were forced to evacuate in under 10 minutes after being woken by the smell of smoke. Some – perhaps fortunately – said they were already half-awake due to the vessel’s passage through heavy seas.
In an interview posted on Taucher’s YouTube channel, four of the divers say that the situation was very chaotic, that none of the crew or guides took responsibility for the evacuation; and although the crew managed to lower the two zodiacs into the water, the liveaboard was still moving, enshrouding the dive platform in smoke and making it virtually impossible to board them safely.
One of the zodiac’s engines was not working, while the other was poorly inflated and taking on water. The boats were tethered together, and shortly after the passengers left the Sea Legend, two large explosions were heard coming from the stricken vessel. There were no life vests, no lights, no emergency flares, and there is uncertainty amongst the passengers as to whether or not an emergency SOS call was ever sent from the dive boat – some passengers had brought mobile phones and were attempting to raise the alert with the weak signal available.
Related articles
- Houthi rebels sink phosphate-laden bulk carrier MV Rubymar in Red Sea
- Three dead in Red Sea liveaboard MV Hurricane fire
- Red Sea liveaboard Carlton Queen capsizes
- Indo Siren liveaboard destroyed by fire in Raja Ampat
Eventually, with its pilot ‘knee-deep’ in water, the zodiac with the working engine detached from the other and drove at full speed for the shore. In heavy seas – one of the guests estimates the waves at up to 3m in height – the crew managed to steer the boat onto a reef approximately 200m from land. The passengers were able to walk, swim and crawl across the reef, picking up injuries in the process, until reaching shore at around 6.20am, almost three hours after being forced to abandon ship.
The second zodiac, floating but powerless, was left adrift until being rescued by two speedboats from Xtra Divers, before being transferred to a coastguard vessel and taken to Safaga, where they reached land at around 11.30am.
The divers spell out a long litany of safety issues, saying that there was no proper safety briefing when they arrived on the boat, life jackets were not provided nor readily available – in fact they were being kept in the bow, where the fire broke out. There was no fire alarm when the fire broke out, presumably since the smoke detectors were not working – and divers have also complained that the crew failed to raise the alarm and gather the passengers once the fire had been detected.
Most tragically, it appears that no roll call was taken during the chaotic moments before the guests abandoned ship. Although it was initially reported that all passengers and crew had survived the ordeal, once both sets of passengers were back on land, it appeared clear that one diver, a 50-year old German woman, was missing.
Questions are certain to be raised as the latest tragedy follows the deaths of three British divers aboard the MV Hurricane in June 2023, and the sinking of the Carlton Queen in April, a few months prior. Sea Legend itself operated as a temporary replacement for Scuba Scene, which was destroyed by fire shortly after leaving port in April 2022.
