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

[Ken Kurtis]

. . . the escape hatch on the lower deck is in a cabin. It was most definitely was there before the Conception fire, so that is a total rumor.

I had a group on this boat in December, 2015, and can also confirm the escape hatch was in that forward cabin because I remember joking about it with the two gals who were in there. I had realized someone suggested it was a recent addition or would have commented on that earlier.

. . . when we got on the Aggressor, just two days later, what had happened on the Conception was VERY MUCH on our minds. So I want to make it very clear. The crew, including the boat hosts, dive guides, the stewards, and deck hands all knew about the Conception because we all talked about it.

Thank you for first-hand info about this. My concerns/comments previously were people saying "Oh, they must have known about it" without offering any reason/evidence about why they would have known about it. It may be a reasonable assumption, but it was just that - an assumption. Your comments here certainly clear that up.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I understand where you came from but I'd beg to differ.

IMHO, it's precisely the job of brand owners to ensure every franchisee upholds the standards of their brands.

In this case, it's Aggressor who should have done proper due diligence before allowing the boat owner to operate under Aggressor brand in Red Sea.

Thus Aggressor cannot, and should not, be allowed to receive royalties and revenue sharing without taking responsibilities for the tragedy

Royalties? Revenue sharing? So it sounds like you are privy to the terms of the business arrangement between Aggressor and the boat operators. Please elaborate.

 

[ReefHound]

So the escape hatch was in a cabin. Do the cabins have doors that lock?

 

[Land Fish]

Royalties? Revenue sharing? So it sounds like you are privy to the terms of the business arrangement between Aggressor and the boat operators. Please elaborate.

Unfortunately I am not. And I suspect anyone who has such knowledge would be bound by confidentiality requirements.

What I commented on is common practice when it comes to sales and purchase agreements or licensing agreements.

What Wookie has shared earlier is more insightful

 

[chillyinCanada]

Unfortunately I am not. And I suspect anyone who has such knowledge would be bound by confidentiality requirements.

What I commented on is common practice when it comes to sales and purchase agreements or licensing agreements.

What Wookie has shared earlier is more insightful

Regardless, to my mind, your premise is sound.

 

[Egypt66]

Hello fellow divers, I was on the Red Sea Aggressor that caught fire last week. I am the friend and roommate of the amazing and beloved diver that died due to the negligence of the Aggressor company who have been attempting to malign and victim blame her from the very beginning. Ahmed, the owner/rep was surprisingly allowed in all of our initial Egyptian police interviews; and while representing the Aggressor company, Ahmed repeatedly tried to twist, lie, and mistranslate what we said to the translator and to the Arabic speaking policeman.

First, our friend, the victim, did not return to the room for a computer. Second, the crew did not maintain or perform a 24hr fire watch (attested to by another diver) as we had been told by the crew that they did during our Day 1 safety briefing, and is the norm on boats. NONE of the fire alarms worked. There was NO alarm and NO bell, verbal or other crew alert of a fire or danger. We, the surviving divers are alive only because we woke on our own accord due to the suffocating smell of smoke and made our way to and through our below deck emergency hatch on our own. The crew did not rescue us except to pick us up in the zodiacs after we had to jump overboard just after midnight to save our lives. Although our crew miraculously got another zodiac in the water and got us out of the water and to a nearby ship, it was the a fellow diver and crew from the nearby moored rescuing ship Emperor Asmaa, that shouted for us to jump overboard, just before the tanks started exploding.

The Egyptian prosecutors appropriately arrested Ahmed from the Aggressor, the day after, and I feel confident they will continue to investigate this horrific, senseless and 100% preventable tragedy fully and hold all those negligent responsible for our friend's death, and our near-deaths.

And, as if things couldn't have gotten worse, the Red Sea Aggressor treated us horribly. Despite promising us clothing and toiletries upon arrival at the hotel hours after docking and the police interviews, they left us in wet clothes and towels and shoeless for 15hrs after the fire. A generous Egyptian hotel shop owner, Ramen "Marco" took pity on us and offered all of us our choice of free shoes and clothing. I cannot thank him or the other strangers enough, those in addition to Marco who also stepped in to help: besides the rescue, Emperor Asmaa's crew and guests that gave us towels and their own dry clothes and emotional support; Charlotte Smurthwaite from the Sunrise Marina Resort guest services did everything she could to make things more bearable; a German guest in the hotel dining room that went to back to his room and returned with 3 pieces of clothing for a shirtless male diver, because the only shirt the diver owned was still drying after being washed the night before and he was almost denied entry to eat; and when a UK hotel guest Derek Gale heard me begging the Aggressor company over the hotel lobby phone to give us more than the paltry $123 they finally gave us at 3pm after the fire, which didn't go far considering our needs after losing everything, even if just a "loan" not a handout, so we could buy and have access to a cell for international calls to call loved ones and make arrangements, buy a single pair of underwear, and change of clothes, medication, etc, - to which they told me "they had given us all 'enough'" and refused us even a loan of money until we could get replacement bank cards (BTW, most of us didn't even have single piece of underwear until 2.75days later), Derek returned with hundreds of British Pounds; also a big thanks to all those in the USA FBI and Embassy in Cairo that treated us so warmly, escorted us, expedited our replacement passports and provided us with other necessities and support which the Aggressor repeatedly refused to us.

At one point, Red Sea Aggressor owner David Home even physically attacked and hurt me me, in an attempt to wrestle one of the two international phones they allowed the survivors to use out of my hand after I told him I wanted to speak to his boss and he refused to make the call himself. He had the nerve to call the US Embassy and claim I attacked him. I'm a USAF Veteran, and if my unimpeachable 24 years of civil service isn't enough, I welcome a lie detector to prove him wrong.

Regardless of your experience with or impression of the Aggressor Company world-wide in the past, I hope you boycott them out of principle of the matter...not just for their blatant negligence of a fellow diver's death, but for their victim blaming, which is a slap in the face of our friend and her family, and for the inhumane and insensitive way the Aggressor treated us, the survivors, after the fact. Plus, I don't want any other diver to ever go through this or be treated so horribly like we have been. There are plenty of other great diving companies, please vote with your wallet and go with anyone else besides the Aggressor Fleet. We trusted them by name for the quality and safety record a USA run company represents. If they are willing to rubber-stamp franchises without holding them to basic safety standards, none of us, as guests are safe on any of the Aggressor fleet. Laughably, they've offered us vouchers for a future trip with them as if I'd set foot on an Aggressor death-trap again.

Please post this statement to any sites that repeat the Aggressor's lies and blame the victim, or post a link in a reply to me so I can ask for a correction, we already have done so with another scuba article and they have respected our request for a change to the truth. Please warn all divers you know, and spread the truth from the survivors, on this matter. Eat, sleep, dive, and hopefully survive.

 

[Egypt66]

Hi!

I am very sorry for your loss and all you had to go through.

This is a quote from your post "Ahmed, the owner/rep was surprisingly allowed in all of our initial Egyptian"

This another quote from your post "At one point, Red Sea Aggressor owner David Home even physically attacked and hurt me "

As you see in a kaos facts get distorted.

Accidents do happen and we are not all perfect.

There is no need to wage a war on a company that has branches all over the world.

This is very tragic and i understand that, in no way shape or form that i am trying to down play this accident.

I remember that some person died in the USA from eating a hamburger ( i think it was jack in the Box), this was due negligence from a few emploees in that one restaurant.

We can not go and boybott the whole chain of rstaurants.

It is important to let the investigation take its course.

 

[outofofficebrb]

A statement has apparently been made by Wayne Brown, CEO of Aggressor Adventures. There is mention of changes/actions as a result of Conception as communicated to the Aggressor fleet and he also addresses guests stating they didn’t hear smoke detectors going off. I copy and pasted it below for your convenience but below is a direct link.

Red Sea Aggressor fire - official statement from Wayne B Brown


On 1 November, as reported at the time by Scuba Diver, a liveaboard in the southern Egyptian Red Sea, just north of Port Ghalib, caught fire in the middle of the night, tragically leaving one of the guests dead, and the rest of the passengers and crew having to jump into the sea to escape the burning vessel.

In those first few hours, details were extremely scarce, but following our initial report news broke that the liveaboard in question was the Red Sea Aggressor I, also known as the Suzanna I. Now Aggressor Adventures CEO Wayne B Brown has released this statement:

“As you know, misinformation is common in the initial days following unforeseen events. We are being very open and honest on what we know as facts become available, but unfortunately, factual information is emerging slowly, even to us. We do not speculate. So as we’re able to review all statements given, we begin to get a better picture of what has occurred.

“However, we know in the big picture that, unfortunately, there was a tragedy of a diver losing their life, and the rest had to evacuate with little to no possessions. The ground team in Egypt responded quickly in getting everyone into an all-inclusive resort to ensure their basic needs were being met and then assembled cash so they could get some clothing and sundries at the limited shops available in Port Ghalib.

“They also spent a day and a half working with tourist police gaining approval for us to relocate them to Cairo. Egypt does not allow tourists to relocate without prior approvals that usually occurs behind the scenes. We immediately secured hotels and transportation to the embassies in Cairo, even before they ever left Port Ghalib. The Cairo team then helped everyone with rearranging and paying for their return flights as well as some more shopping for clothes, luggage etc.

“Once on land, was everything executed perfectly, no. But rather accept it given the challenging circumstances, we are regrouping to assess how we can continue to improve our procedures and practices.

“As a company and divers ourselves, we have always been extremely safety-driven, and when any event happens anywhere in the dive industry, we use that to look internally for any changes we may need to make to try and prevent that occurrence with our own guests.

“After the recent Conception fire, we directed every destination to ensure that no charging was done unattended and that all lithium charging was done outside at the designated charging areas. We also had them review their emergency exit plans, fire escapes and smoke detectors for proper working order and that their firefighting gear was operational.

“Also, in regards to a passenger’s comments that he did not hear a smoke detector – and some research showing smoke detectors having a history of testing okay with the test button but not activating with actual smoke – we will start requiring the testing of our smoke detectors with cans of fake smoke to ensure proper operation. That is just one of the many procedures we are looking to implement across our fleet to further strengthen our guest safety and of course, customer confidence.”

 

[Jay]

This is a quote from your post "Ahmed, the owner/rep was surprisingly allowed in all of our initial Egyptian"

This another quote from your post "At one point, Red Sea Aggressor owner David Home even physically attacked and hurt me "

As you see in a kaos facts get distorted.

Accidents do happen and we are not all perfect.

There is no need to wage a war on a company that has branches all over the world.

This is very tragic and i understand that, in no way shape or form that i am trying to down play this accident.

Yeah right!

 

[Miyaru]

The statement from Wayne Brown sounds to me like damage control, carefully redacted by the sales & marketing department.

...
As you see in a kaos facts get distorted.
Accidents do happen and we are not all perfect.
There is no need to wage a war on a company that has branches all over the world.
...
It is important to let the investigation take its course.

The investigation will take its course, with or without Scubaboard. But the power of Scubaboard (and the internet) is that everybody has a voice, as seen with several witness accounts. Makes it so much harder to cover up mistakes.

Twice now, the absence of a nightwatch has resulted in the loss of life. Not a single word about that from Wayne Brown.
Nobody is perfect, so how difficult is it to say: we f#cked up and people died because of it.