Watch moment Egypt yacht survivor is RESCUED from air pocket on sunken ship after 36hrs…& says ‘It’s nice to be back’
THIS is the moment one of the capsized Egyptian yacht survivors is rescued from an air pocket after the tourist boat sank in the Red Sea.
The grateful man simply said “It’s nice to be back” after his ordeal of 36 hours when the Sea Story diving boat capsized on Monday.
He was one of the five survivors found by the rescue teams while seven people – including two Brits- remain missing.
Officials said rescuers have been “intensifying efforts” to find them.
Wrapped in a blanket, the Belgian national who was rescued smiled as he said: “it was very nice to be back, very nice“.
He added: “Yes, I really appreciate it [the rescue efforts].
“The reception on [the] boat with a warm shower, the dinner after and all the care they took because we were shaking with [the] cold and they warmed us up.”
Authorities said military divers rescued two Belgians, one Swiss national, one Finnish tourist and one Egyptian.
The number of survivors is now 33, while four bodies have been recovered from the sunken wreckage.
Among the seven missing are two Brits, another two Polish tourists and one holidaymaker from Finland.
Tragedy struck on Monday when the Sea Story yacht left Porto Ghalib Port for a multi-day diving trip heading south towards Marsa Alam 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.
One of the rescued British tourists said it was pitch black when the fatal wave struck.
The doomed yacht took just five minutes to sink after witnesses described seeing an “abnormally large” wave hitting the boat before it capsized.
Survivors said they heard trapped tourists screaming from inside their cabins.
The tourist said: “I was on the surface when things started to go wrong. I felt the boat tilting sharply, and I tried to hold on to something stable, but the capsizing was very fast.
“I heard screams from inside the cabins, but many were unable to get out because the doors were closed and the place was filled with water.”
According to the ship tracking website Marine Traffic, the last location of 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.
Four Germans, two Spaniards, two Belgians, two Americans, one Irishman, and a Finn were on board.
As well as divers from China, Slovakia, Switzerland, Poland, Norway and Egypt.
Rescue operations are ongoing amid mounting fears around the fate of the remaining seven missing.
Support is being given to “a number of British nationals and their families”, the UK Foreign Office confirmed.
Previous Dive Pro tragedies
THE Dive Pro Liveaboard firm who used the Egyptian yacht that sank in the Red Sea has been involved in two other serious incidents in the last three years.
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.
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.