Fire on safari boat Suzana in Egypt (Red Sea Aggressor)

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to the deck with a ladder at the bow of the ship. It was also said: It is strictly forbidden to operate electrical equipment and especially chargers for batteries in the cabs because of fire, as long as you are not yourself in the cabin. Even at night, if one sleeps, the operation of electrical equipment is prohibited because of fire hazards. Chargers are likely to be operated only on the dedicated table in the rear of the main deck. Right next to the staircase that leads up from the lower deck, in the so-called 'Salon'.

I can swear there was no fire station.I am a night man, was usually the last guest on the boat, who was still awake. Mostly on a sundeck still looking in the stars or reading with my e-book reader. When I came down from there, over the upper deck, down to the dive deck, through the glass door into the salon, towards Unterdeck, I noticed on the first evening that no one was present. 'So much for a fire station,' I thought. The thought came back to me on the evening of October 31, when I was the last person to go down the stairs to the lower deck cabins between the coffee machine and the battery charging desk at around 11 pm. In that sense, I may have a small share in the blame for the disaster. I should have awakened someone from the crew and pointed out the missing fire watch. But that did - unfortunately too late - about two hours later another guest.

I woke up, heard footsteps, muffled calls, 'Fire, Fire'!In fact, there was a slight burning smell in the air, not a pleasant bonfire scent, rather chemical and nasty. I asked my friend lying in the second bunk, Buddy, whether he smelled it too, he seemed to have awakened at the same time and murmured, 'yes, something is going on'. When I stuck my head out of the cabin door, I clearly saw smoke in the hallway, the smell was extreme. I was reckless and went back to the cabin again. tried to find my glasses in the compartment next to the bunk. Without them, I'm as blind as a mole. I felt around, could not catch them, maybe 20, for a maximum of 30 seconds, the same did my buddy, then I said: '**** on the glasses, we have to get out of here'. When we returned to the corridor, the smoke was much more massive. I tried the stairs to the stern, but even on the second or third stage, the heat on the head became unbearable, the smoke extremely biting and I heard nasty crackling. So back to the bow, to the emergency exit. Helmut directly behind me, behind someone else, until today we do not know who it was. We reached the escape hatch through which someone else just crawled. Then helping hands pulled me into the room beyond. At the frenzied pace of smoke and fire that was already spreading, it was clear that if we had come out of the cabin only 30 seconds later, we too would have been dead. Another guest, an engineer by profession and specialized in safety in industrial plants, later explained: The smoke had the very special smell of burning PVC cable. Chlorine. For a long time forbidden in industry

A complete reconstruction of the last minutesIt happened when all the survivors were later questioned by the Egyptian police and talked a lot. A guest in the backmost cabin, directly at the stairs, woke up, smelled smoke, woke his roommate, He tried - as I did a little later - the stairs to the stern He came a few steps higher than me and reported that he had gone through intense red glow from the thick smoke, possibly on the side where the coffee maker stood, maybe a little further to the right where the loading table was. But even for him it was impossible to reach the exit on this way. He turned and ran loudly calling 'Fire-Fire' forward. That must have been the moment I slowly woke up. At the front end of the corridor, he opened the door to cubicle 1, where the emergency exit was located, woke the local guests. When he tried to open the emergency exit, succeeded only a few inches. Something blocked the hatch. He pushed harder, shook, .... after some time he managed to open the hatch and he noticed the cause: On the back was a mattress and on it a sleeping crew member. It was time we know the first crew member was awake. At some point between this first guest and me, the tour director, the 'first dive guide', must have awakened. He lay in cabin 2, also in the lower deck, at the bow, near the emergency exit. No one remembers when he came out of the cabin - as far as we all know in any case before me and Helmut. He would have had time to run down the corridor, ripping open all the cabin doors and warning the passengers. added: we did not do that too - but he should have been trained for that. And in no moment, from the first second of awakening, to no fifteen minutes later, the boat was on fire from bow to stern, even a single human heard a single beep from a smoke detector. A human died for that reason. It was an American government employee, Army veteran, housed in the rearmost cabin. The other guests' pajamas and pajamas were not really dry yet, as reports surfaced in American dive forums, praising the heroic rescue efforts of the crew - and claiming she had died because she had gone back into the cabin to get her laptop to rescue. We do not know who put this nonsense into the world. Everyone should think his part. As far as we survivors and only witnesses can reconstruct, it was similar to her and her roommates, like Helmut and me. When both were awake almost at the same time, both tried to catch a few things shortly. They lay without knowing it even closer to the source of the fire than we did. One of the two women must have been human. the last directly behind Helmut and me came from the lower deck. Your roommate, as far as we know, hesitated only a few seconds too long. As described: There is not even a fire alarm. One of the two women must have been human. the last directly behind Helmut and me came from the lower deck. Your roommate, as far as we know, hesitated only a few seconds too long. As described: There is not even a fire alarm. One of the two women must have been human. the last directly behind Helmut and me came from the lower deck. Your roommate, as far as we know, hesitated only a few seconds too long. As described: There is not even a fire alarm.

The few passengers, whose cabin was on the main and upper deck, had also awakened and made the only possible staircase down to the dive deck. There they saw through the windows to the salon only thick smoke and in the back intense red glow. Shortly after them, the first crew members arrived there, managed within about one or two minutes to let the lying on the upper deck at the stern Zodiac (dinghy) to water. The guests standing at the stern jumped in quickly and reported that probably the flight engineer was still trying to open the door to the salon armed with breathing mask and fire extinguisher. He could not know, but that was a mistake. For as the door opened, the smoldering fire got fresh air and everything stood instantly in blazing flames.

At about the same time, Helmut and I must have arrived through the emergency exit and the ladder at the bow of the ship. To estimate time in such situations is hardly possible. But it may only have taken a minute or two before the people sitting in the dinghy at the stern and seeing much more shouted at us. 'Jump, Jump'. I could hardly believe it and jumped as penultimate. A little later, the first dive tanks exploded at the stern. In the water we met a crew member. It was spooky. He had saved his hard-shell suitcase, which he was hauling in one hand as he swam behind him. Meanwhile, the fire had reached the bow of the ship at great speed. There were barely ten minutes between our first awakening and this moment.

Fortunately, we anchored near the banks, it was the last night at sea.Behind us, a ship had moored the 'Emperor Fleet'. There must have been someone awake. When we jumped off the ship, we had ready to release the lines, lifted the anchor and started to drive the ship out of the danger zone. Then they put a Zodiac in the water and began to collect us. On behalf of all, I would like to once again thank the Emporer fleet and especially this crew and their passengers. When all the survivors on the ship arrived and counted, it became apparent that a woman was missing. The Zodiacs spent well over half an hour orbiting the burning wreck and looking for it. Vain. As we were told later, the "Red Sea Aggressor 1" burned far into the day, slowly drifting out to sea and eventually sinking to a depth of about 200 meters.

Zuammengefasst:Not a single smoke detector is active, a sleeping crew, a blocked emergency exit. You can hardly make more mistakes. In purely legal terms, it will probably be argued that the boat owner is responsible, if at all. Although there is a strict, unified 'branding' for the whole fleet and all ships are marketed from the US, they have different owners worldwide. It's a kind of franchise business. But if such a company operates its fleet to globally consistent standards - (warm towels) - if you write company logos and brand names on the ships and if the CEO claims
 
Even the days after were no fame for this company, Crew and guests were extremely friendly on the ship of the Emperor group that picked us up, gave some of us T-shirts, sometimes shorts, handed out hot drinks, were just nice. After the ship had brought us to the port of Marsa Alam before dawn, we spent a few hours with the gifted, but sometimes also wet, slowly drying laundry - in the office of customs and harbor police. At some point an Egyptian representative of "Aggressor" appeared. Although there would have to be a well-stocked laundry somewhere nearby - on each of the two weekly tours here branded branded clothing is sold as a souvenir - he had not thought of dry clothing. After all, he shipped us to a nearby hotel, There, the operator of the hotel shop gave us T-shirts and shorts. Only on the evening of the second day after the disaster did we begin to feel that the global Aggressor Group was systematically taking care of us. In the coach we were taken to Cairo to the embassies, where we received new papers and visas, took care of return flights, promised to settle our material losses by the insurance. Reimbursement of the travel price and - one hardly believes it - a voucher for another Aggressor adventure journey. took care of return flights, promising to have our material losses paid by the insurance company. Reimbursement of the travel price and - one hardly believes it - a voucher for another Aggressor adventure journey. took care of return flights, promising to have our material losses paid by the insurance company. Reimbursement of the travel price and - one hardly believes it - a voucher for another Aggressor adventure journey.

The representative from the United States actually seemed to work very effectively for us. He introduced himself as David, the company's marketing director. On the company homepage I could not find him today in the column 'Employees'. But many survivors tried to tell him what had really happened on the boat. Everyone reports that he has stopped this energetically. Finally, on the last evening in Cairo, I managed to give this david a short version of this report. He seemed stunned. Nevertheless, none of the survivors has until today contained a real apology. One apologizes only for the 'tragic' catastrophe, but in no word for the failure of those responsible, unanimously described by all survivors.

Lessons to be learned from it - as a boat operator and customer: are the smoke detectors working? Is at night at sea and at anchor at least one crew member awake? Are the emergency exits free and quickly passable? Not to believe! Check yourself! If in doubt, alert the crew to safety issues! And last but not least: Always a waterproof bag with passport, credit card, smartphone and possibly glasses, right next to the bed! A mobile, suitable for travel smoke detector can not hurt either.
 
He paints a picture of a crew that worked very hard to make the customers happy but were poorly trained and were lax in adhering to safety policies. Also a boat in run down condition near end of life cycle and suffering from poor maintenance such that things were constantly failing or breaking.
 
After having been on Aggressor boats 4 times, for 5 weeks, I'm extremely disappointed that they have not released a single detail of this accident. My opinion of Aggressor is shifting, nothing to do with the boats I have been on. Why wouldn't you disclose this unfortunate event and provide details?
Concur with you completely on this sentiment. Has baffled me that there has been nothing communicated. On the customer service end of things, I reached out to Aggressor via e-mail requesting to get my deposit back for my June 2020 trip aboard the RSA 1, based on the fire and the fact that the boat no longer exists. I received the following response today:

Hello Greg,
Thank you for your patience and understanding. I will cancel your reservation tomorrow and ask accounting to credit your credit card and then send you an updated invoice showing reservation has been cancelled and your card refunded.

Have a lovely rest of your day.

With my best regards,
 
Concur with you completely on this sentiment. Has baffled me that there has been nothing communicated. On the customer service end of things, I reached out to Aggressor via e-mail requesting to get my deposit back for my June 2020 trip aboard the RSA 1, based on the fire and the fact that the boat no longer exists. I received the following response today:

Hello Greg,
Thank you for your patience and understanding. I will cancel your reservation tomorrow and ask accounting to credit your credit card and then send you an updated invoice showing reservation has been cancelled and your card refunded.

Have a lovely rest of your day.

With my best regards,

I would have preferred they be up front and proactive, contacting customers with a nicely developed and carefully written letter with marketing and legal, while offering options including a refund or a please stand by on other options in meantime. Instead, you had to reach out. Though, to be fair, X customers per week multiplied by how many weeks they book in advance and considering how full the boats are per week on average and in the long run is a lot of emailing to do. At least they aren’t fighting you on the refund, as they shouldn’t. But if they did, that’s when you can utilize a credit card chargeback. :)
 

Danke! Thanks!
Red the original.
Holy C..p!

My observations from 2 weeks on the Agressor 1 in Summer 2016 are pretty much the same ... minus fire of course, but I sure also saw a matress on the ground in the room that the forward escape hatch lead to prior to then leading to starboard I think (saw from the outside). May have contemplated it, but, even if I mentioned it (don't recall, I did nothing of fact changing consequence really. Ignoring the captain (or whoever) in the wheelhouse. I also do not recall noticing a fire watch on my (very few) late night trips to the upper deck and back. Sometimes there was a smoking talking buddy next to the wheelhouse. Not sure that counts.

Now I am so rethinking my own diligence and alertness ... as well as the Red Sea LOB trip I literally was going to pull the trigger on this evening.
Step 1: sleep over it
Step 2: Maybe the extra money for a cabin not "below" is worth a consideration.
Step 3: Talk it over with the wife and act only then... if we act...
Step 0: Get my act together and ditch complacency, especially if I know better, never mind the calm assurances by the "professionals". To much complacency! Got to address at the very least mine!
 
I would have preferred they be up front and proactive, contacting customers with a nicely developed and carefully written letter with marketing and legal, while offering options including a refund or a please stand by on other options in meantime. Instead, you had to reach out. Though, to be fair, X customers per week multiplied by how many weeks they book in advance and considering how full the boats are per week on average and in the long run is a lot of emailing to do. At least they aren’t fighting you on the refund, as they shouldn’t. But if they did, that’s when you can utilize a credit card chargeback. :)
I'd like to see all that and a detailed list of measures that will take place AND will be enforced effectively (and how so) to prevent such outcome. Loss of boat is one thing. Loss of live would have been entirely avoidable here. I.m.h.o.
 
Let's be honest - marketing is what Aggressor is good at. It is their differentiating factor and it is how they will handle the problem.

Odds are that strategy will be successful (most of their customers probably don't read Scubaboard).

Personally I find the lack of transparency distasteful and that will probably limit my future consideration of them for trips (moreso than the fire itself).

In April 2018 the boat was in relatively good shape. Not perfect, but certainly not run down. The guest facing crew was also great, procedures were standardized, briefings were done - certainly, an effort was made. I have no doubt there was every intent, then and now, to run a quality operation.

That all being said, my trip was half price - $1165USD for a week on a boat with 2:1 guest:crew, 21 nitrox tanks, above average meals, and plenty of distance travelled. As I looked for 2020 trips the rates were also heavily discounted. I suspect they were running only a little above cost and the boat was not full the week I was there. I believe the weeks before and after were even more sparse. It would not surprise me in the least if the Egypt 'tourist situation' has had a severe impact on maintenance and that this fire is the end result.

I also do not recall a night watch (though I am far from a night owl).

But there is only so much that can be placed on 'the crew' and only so much that can be placed on the marketing and sales (and crisis management apparently) services provided by Aggressor. Ultimately, somewhere up the chain someone is hiring the crew and signing the cheques for maintenance and receiving the profits when they do exist. They are where the buck stops (even the Captain reports to somebody - despite what nautical tradition would have us all believe) and that is where everyone needs to be looking for responsibility.

Anyone know who owns 'suzanna'?
 
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