A DIVER rescued his own nephew from the yacht which sank in Egypt – as the search continues for seven missing people.
Two British tourists remain missing after a freak wave struck the tourist vessel on Monday morning, causing it to capsize.
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Khattab al-Faramawy said a team of divers he was with dived 12m underwater to get inside the Sea Story tourist boat and find the cabins.
He told the BBC: “We were using torch lights to try to find our way into the darkness, it was quite a complicated mission.”
Khattab’s nephew was on the boat when it sank and he did not know whether he had survived as he began the search.
But Youssef, 23, had survived and was locked in one of the cabins when he was trying to help people escape.
Khattab’s brother, Hussam, said he broke down in tears when he learnt his son was alive.
He said: “I couldn’t tell his mother what happened to the boat, she would have died immediately. I only told her after I realised that he survived.
“I could do nothing but pray to God to help my boy, and thankfully his uncle finally saved him.”
Youssef is currently in hospital receiving treatment after he was trapped in the vessel for 24 hours.
Some 33 of the 44 people on board have been found so far with rescue efforts being led by the Egyptian Navy.
Four bodies have been recovered from the sunken wreckage.
One of the five survivors found by the rescue teams said it was “nice to back” after his 36-hour ordeal.
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.”
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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.
One British 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.”
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.
Previous Dive Pro tragedies
By Georgie English
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.
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