WARNING – DISTRESSING FOOTAGE: One tourist on The Sindbad submarine who survived described the panic as the tragedy unfolded in the Egyptian Red Sea destination of Hurghada
Moment tourist submarine begins to sink with it’s hatches open
A mum who survived the submarine sinking off Egypt recalled the horror of the tragedy that killed six tourists. Regina also descried a ‘fatal mistake’ leading to it.
She said: “We were saved by the fact that we were on the top of the submarine, we did not have time to go inside We were queuing at the boarding, when the submarine began to sink into the water. “The Egyptian who was responsible for loading shouted ‘Stop, stop!’. But naturally no one inside heard him. He shouted to us ‘Faster, faster, go to the pontoon’ from which people were boarding.”
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She went on: “I swam away, sat on the structures that were built around the pontoon so that they could moor here. From there I moved to the pontoon itself This is of course a very big tragedy. I can’t put into words how difficult this situation was. There was not a single life preserver, no lifebuoys, no vests, nothing at all on the pontoon itself.”
Regina, who was with her children, aged nine and 10, also claimed that one person made a mistake that caused “the whole tragedy”. She explained: “Rescue boats began to approach. There were no medics among them. The police and all the surrounding people tried to get people out.
“The submarine did not fully sink, it simply descended into the water at the moment when people were getting on board, and the hatches were not battened down. That is, the whole tragedy happened because of the mistake, in my opinion, of one person who began the descent without making sure that all the people were in the submarine itself and that all the hatches were battened down.
“And there were no [organised] rescue operations from the Egyptian services.” Boats were sailing by and “waving their hands at everyone”.
She said: “These boats delivered the victims to the shore directly to the rescuers, to the ambulances. When we were on the boat that brought all the rescued [tourists] to the shore, there really were doctors there, offering help…
“They took us there in a car to our hotel, fortunately it was located right next door, our hotel.” Some of the passengers were told by a crew member that he “could not swim”.
“According to the victims, the submarine began to dive right as people were boarding, and not everyone managed to get out on deck,” reported SHOT media. Yet there was a misunderstanding by the crew after a grandparent at the last minute took two young children, aged seven and eight, ashore to the toilet.
“Before boarding, the children wanted to go to the toilet – and because of this, they were delayed,” said the outlet. “There were at least five more people on the deck, but the bathyscaphe had already begun to dive under the water.
“In seconds, the people found themselves in the sea, and having climbed out onto the pontoons, they began to rescue the others.” A Russian father “realised in time what was happening.
“He threw the kids on the pier and started helping the other people get out with another man. As you can see in the video, the boat started going down when not all the people had gone in yet, and it ended up going under water in a split second.”
She told Baza media outlet: “We pushed the children out. I understood that I would not be able to climb onto the pontoon itself. I tried to swim away from the submarine. I was afraid that I would be pulled under it because of the currents.
Footage shows the appalling moment the submarine sinks with its hatches open as tourists are still boarding. Tourists can be heard screaming as they prepare to climb inside – with the vessel already descending.
The Russian consulate in Hurghada said six Russians, including two children, died as a result of the Red Sea tragedy. The horror unfolded as 45 tourists were preparing for an underwater pleasure trip to see coral reefs off the Egyptian coast.
“We express our sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims,” said the consul. “At present, seven Russian citizens, including five minors, remain in Hurghada hospitals. According to doctors, their condition is not alarming.”
Witnesses say the submarine dived without ensuring the hatches were closed, but SHOT reported there may have been a technical fault. Mother of two Dr Kristina Valliulina, 39, a paediatrician originally listed as dead by the Egyptian authorities, survived the submarine tragedy with her two daughters.
