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

[John Bantin]

I'm afraid the the Egyptian authorities are doing the usual by punishing everyone involved, whether guilty or not, as soon as tourist spending is endangered.
Michael

This can be misleading. Egypt uses a version of Napoleonic Law - so everyone involved is held while the investigation decides who (if any) will be charged. (That's why you should really carry a bail-bond when driving in Spain.)

 

[scubadada]

I hope we are eventually able to learn from this tragedy regarding the risks of LOB diving and mitigation of those risks. Thus far, I am unimpressed with transparency, nothing in the public domain from Aggressor, little to no coverage in the US...

 

[Dan]

I’ll be in RSA2 in December. Hmm

 

[scubadada]

Aggressor does seem to run a pretty tight ship. On one of my two weeks an the Red Sea Aggressor I, they were audited by their chief of operations, Larry Speaker. He only did about half the dives and spent all the rest of his time with observation and discussion with the crew. He did have a new Aggressor camera, a Canon G7X in a Fantasea housing. He was very grateful for me showing him how the one button white balance worked. His photos and video improved significantly. Regardless, he took his role very seriously.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I hope we are eventually able to learn from this tragedy regarding the risks of LOB diving and mitigation of those risks. Thus far, I am unimpressed with transparency, nothing in the public domain from Aggressor, little to no coverage in the US...

It's disappointing, isn't it? I can understand them wanting to keep it hush-hush. It's bad publicity for their company/brand, bad for business, bad in general for the industry. Honestly, if not for my being a member of SB and some groups on FB, I would not have known about this and many other fires, sinkings, issues with various liveaboard. I remember last year when one of the Emperor boats ran aground in the Red Sea, it was also kept hush hush. They got it back in the water relatively quickly. I told others about it later on and they didn't believe me as they didn't hear anything about it and when they asked Emperor they kind of dodged around the subject and said the boat is operating and fine. I had to send my friend a pic of it run aground and partially sinking.

 

[scubadada]

It's disappointing, isn't it? I can understand them wanting to keep it hush-hush. It's bad publicity for their company/brand, bad for business, bad in general for the industry. Honestly, if not for my being a member of SB and some groups on FB, I would not have known about this and many other fires, sinkings, issues with various liveaboard. I remember last year when one of the Emperor boats ran aground in the Red Sea, it was also kept hush hush. They got it back in the water relatively quickly. I told others about it later on and they didn't believe me as they didn't hear anything about it and when they asked Emperor they kind of dodged around the subject and said the boat is operating and fine. I had to send my friend a pic of it run aground and partially sinking.

You are absolutely correct, this is a closed and secret society. Your previous recommendations regarding due diligence cannot be over emphasized.

 

[scubadada]

I went on the Red Sea Aggressor I for two weeks in 2016, perhaps I missed something in my safety evaluation? I don't know, but I wonder.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

One of the things that annoys me the most about these occurrences is the lack of effort to learn from these sinking as an industry in an effort to prevent them again. Waow etc....years later and it's still just 'there was a fire in a storm'..there really is no proper forensic investigation (perhaps unable to conduct one) and the crew eyewitnesses are always extremely vague at best. 'we fought a fire in the engine room but can't (won't) comment on where it was coming from or how it started' etc...

 

[Diving Dubai]

Standard Middle East thing, prison while they sort thing out. I know lots of expats who if there’s been a work incident and they’re in the management chain, get to spend a few nights in jail

I wouldn’t read much into it.

 

[nippurmagnum]

I was on a different Egyptian LOB this summer. Because I was mindful of the recent Channel Islands fire, when the Egyptian dive master did the safety briefing and said where the escape hatch was, I asked to go see it, and then I made a point of opening it, and making sure there were no obstructions. I recommend that everyone do the same! It takes two minutes, costs nothing, and could save a life. I doubt that the escape hatches on many boats have been opened in years, and there can be all kinds of obstructions. In the Aggressor case, it sounds like a number of divers went out the escape hatch. Imagine if the hatch had been blocked ...