Egypt Daily News – The Governor of the Red Sea, Major General Amr Hanafi, announced on Tuesday that a Finnish tourist was found alive among those missing from the sunken boat in the waters of Marsa Alam.. Earlier he had announced today, that search and rescue have just found a Swiss tourist alive. Earlier today Tuesday, search and rescue efforts, led by the Egyptian Navy, found 7 people, 3 of whom are alive, 2 of whom hold Belgian nationality and another is Egyptian, while 4 bodies were recovered who are still unidentified in an accident.
The governor indicated that, so far, the total number of people who have been rescued has reached 31 people, while only 4 bodies have been recovered, bringing the total number of people who were embarrassed by the water to 35 people, and search operations are still continuing to find 9 others who are missing.
For the second day, search and rescue operations continue for missing Egyptians and foreigners, since yesterday, Monday, for survivors of “Sea Story” in Marsa Alam. The Egyptian navy is surveying the area with a frigate and a search and rescue helicopter. 16 people are still missing.
The Governor of the Red Sea, Major General Amr Hanafi, revealed that the accident occurred 46 nautical miles from the shore of Marsa Alam, explaining that the boat was owned by an Egyptian national, and was 34 meters long and 9.5 meters wide, and the total number of passengers on board was 44, including 13 Egyptians. Different nationalities, including German, British, American, Polish, Belgian, Swiss, Finnish, and Chinese. Slovak, Spanish, and Irish.
The last inspection from Marine Safety for the boat was in March 2024, and it obtained a certificate of validity for one year, and there are no observations or technical defects regarding the boat, stressing the investigations will continue by the concerned authorities and the boat crew to find out the causes of the accident.
The governor announced that 28 passengers were rescued, as the efforts of the naval forces succeeded in rescuing a number of them, and a nearby tourist boat was able to rescue another number of passengers. It happened to be there at the time of the accident and was called “Star Jet.”
He stressed: “According to the accounts of the foreigners and the Egyptian crew, what happened was that there was a large wave hit the boat, causing it to capsize. This was sudden and rapid, as it took about 5 or 7 minutes, and some of the passengers were inside the cabins, and this was the reason for their inability to get out of the boat.”
Rescue teams are conducting combing operations in the area to search for other survivors, and operations will not stop until all missing persons are found.
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Major General Amr Hanafi, Governor of the Red Sea, announced the rescue of 28 people so far from the sinking accident of the tourist yacht “Sea Story” north of the city of Marsa Alam. Search operations are still underway for the 16 other missing people.
A statement from the Red Sea authorities confirmed that a report was received to the control center in the Red Sea Governorate at 5:30 a.m. from the rescue operations room, stating that a distress signal had been received from a member of the yacht, who was on a diving trip that departed from the port of Porto Ghalib in Marsa Alam in the period from November 24 to 29 November, and was scheduled to return to Hurghada Marina.
It was carrying 33 tourists of different nationalities, in addition to a crew of 14. Initial information indicates that the boat sank in the Sataya reef area.
Nationalities of the passengers, according to sources in the Marsa Alam City Council, were as follows:
-4 Germans
-5 Spaniards
-2 Belgians
-1 Chinese
-2 Americans
-3 Slovaks
-2 Swiss
-4 British
-2 Poles
-4 Egyptians
-2 Norwegians
-1 Irish
-1 Finn, in addition to the Egyptian crew.
The governor indicated that the “Al-Fateh” frigate and aircraft of the armed forces continue to comb the area in coordination with the Marine Rescue Center and the governorate’s operations room. He stressed that the rescued survivors are receiving the necessary medical care, while efforts are being intensified to find the remaining missing persons.
Initial information confirmed that “Sea Story” boat sank in the Sataya reef area, and the marine rescue forces of the Navy immediately carried out a search using the Al-Fateh frigate and with the support of a helicopter at the site of the sinking.
‘A big wave hit the boat’, says a crew member
A surviving crew member said the Sea Story was “hit by a wave in the middle of the night, throwing the vessel on its side”. Bad weather was to blame and marine activities have been shut at several areas of the Red Sea.
