Doomed scuba yacht is Egyptian dive firm’s THIRD boat sinking in three years with 7 still missing & 4 dead
THE dive firm who used the doomed Egyptian yacht that has left four dead have also been involved in two other serious incidents in the last three years.
Dive Pro Liveaboard are known as a popular expedition group in the Red Sea and were involved with the five-day trip that saw the Sea Story boat capsize on Monday morning.
As search teams continue to hunt for the final missing seven people on board the vessel a pair of previous safety breaches have emerged with links to the same company.
In April 2022, Dive Pro Liveaboard were the main operators for the Scuba Scene yacht which dramatically caught on fire while out on the Red Sea.
Nineteen guests, three dive guides and 14 crew members were all forced to evacuate the flaming boat.
The vessel was seen slowly sinking to the sea floor as the tourist’s belongings were forever lost to the water.
Two years later, a second fire broke out on board a Dive Pro Liveaboard vessel.
In February of this year a boat known as Sea Legend was left badly charred after a blaze on deck before it started to sink.
Thirty one people travelling on the luxury vessel were made to evacuate in the emergency.
The smell of smoke is believed to have woken up the guests after a fire started in the kitchen area, eyewitnesses said.
It soon spread through the boat leading to the crew ordering all passengers off within 10 minutes of the first flames appearing.
A German guest, 50, was reported as missing after she didn’t return to dry land with the fellow tourists.
She was later confirmed as dead by officials, the Telegraph reports.
Several of the shaken guests later complained about the safety protocols in place.
They claimed that smoke and fire alarms weren’t working and that the boat didn’t have enough life jackets on board.
An emergency flare was also never signalled despite the clear danger the guests felt they were in, they said.
Sea Legend had only been bought in by the company to replace the lost Scuba Scene.
The Sun has contacted Dive Pro Liveaboard for comment.
This week has seen Dive Pro Liveaboard again in the spotlight after the Sea Story yacht capsized and sank in just five minutes.
At least four bodies have been recovered from the sunken wreckage so far with seven people still feared missing – including two Brits.
The Sea Story left Porto Ghalib Port for a multi-day diving trip on November 24, with 44 people on board.
At around 5:30am local time, a crew member sent out a distress signal from the boat before it suddenly dropped off the radar and lost all contact.
A giant, freak wave is said to have struck the boat in bad weather conditions and made it tip to its size before capsizing.
Brave survivors revealed it took minutes for the vessel to be completely submerged.
Authorities say 33 people have been rescued so far with them all being taken to safety with no major injuries being reported.
Fears are mounting around the condition of the remaining seven people with rescuers still working tirelessly to find survivors.
A British person who escaped the terrifying accident has revealed they heard trapped tourists screaming from inside their cabins.
According to the ship tracking website Marine Traffic, the last location shared by the boat was off Hurghada.
The boat had been on the water despite authorities in the region shutting down activities and the city’s port on Sunday due to “bad weather conditions.”
Egyptian weather forecasters predicted wave heights to reach 10-13ft in the Red Sea before Sea Story departed.
It was unclear how the tourist vessel was given permission to sail in such stormy conditions.
Four Germans, two Spaniards, two Belgians, two Americans, one Irishman, and a Finn were on board, according to local media.
As well as divers from China, Slovakia, Switzerland, Poland, Norway and Egypt.
The Chinese embassy in Egypt has already declared two of its citizens are safe.
Ireland‘s foreign affairs minister Micheál Martin also confirmed the Irish tourist is “OK”.
Support is also being given to “a number of British nationals and their families”, the UK Foreign Office confirmed.
Two Brits have been found safe already but another two are still said to be missing.