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

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Not in any I posted. I did see that in the second link Miyaru posted. Ok, poor journalism aside in the first news story, I suppose it was a dive boat. It seems that the crew were heroic in saving all that followed escape instructions. It's unfortunate that one didn't, if that claim is correct that she went back to save her laptop.

Sorry, my mistake. It was Mayaru’s post.
 
Wasn't this a few years ago?

"A large fire broke out on a tourist boat on Saturday in the Red Sea close to Hurghada’s al-Qyadat area. Naval authorities could not…
egyptindependent.com
Dec 3, 2017"

There was also one in May 2017. When you start looking, it's shocking how often this seems to be happening over there.
Red Sea liveaboard fire left divers stranded - Divernet

Our own dive club had a close call this past June when electrical circuits popped and thick black smoke filled the cabins, forcing us to return to port in the dark and divert from a liveaboard trip to a land-based dive trip. Eerily, our boat name was Conceptum. I can tell you that on neither this boat, or any of the day boats we used that week, gave much in the way of a boat safety briefing.
 
There are a lot of boats on the Red Sea. There are a lot of options out there given the competitive pricing. Pick carefully. Not all are created equal. Ask them about safety equipment and when they last did an overhaul on the boat, including electrical if it’s an older boat.
 
I am just back from a liveaboard/safari in the Red Sea. I didn’t hear anything about this while there, although not surprising as news tends to travel slowly in Egypt. The boat linked to above as Suzanna 1 is now the Red Sea Aggressor. I can’t recall hearing of another liveaboard boat called Suzanna.

The only boat I have been on that did more than the basics on safety was Blue Horizon which did a life jacket drill shortly after leaving port on the first day. Apart from that the usual procedure is a safety briefing on arrival on the boat, cabins tend to have small fire extinguishers, and smoke alarms are in cabins and dotted around the boat. Given the recent fires it will make me rethink my own safety while on board.
 
The boat linked to above as Suzanna 1 is now the Red Sea Aggressor. I can’t recall hearing of another liveaboard boat called Suzanna.

The boat in the 'on fire' pics does not seem to match the pics of the RSA (or my recollection of the layout). Notably, the media pictures of the damaged boat show no crane/loading area for the tenders on the second level/deck. The shape of the hull along the sides is also completely different. Would seem it is a different boat? Suzana vs Suzanna Maybe?
 
The picture of the boat partially on fire on one of the links on page 1 are just file images used by that website and don’t relate to this incident. The only pictures that are of the incident are the ones taken from a distance just showing the burning hull, from that I can’t really see much detail.
 
The picture of the boat partially on fire on one of the links on page 1 are just file images used by that website and don’t relate to this incident. The only pictures that are of the incident are the ones taken from a distance just showing the burning hull, from that I can’t really see much detail.

Uggh... #$^@# 'journalists'....

Thanks... does look like it might indeed be the RSA I (MY Suzanna) if that name is correct. No MY Suzana or MY Susana out there so far as google is concerned.
(I'm assuming there is some sort of rule against boat names the sound the same on the radio... but the mismatched pic was throwing me...)

Guess now was a bad time to poke them about their website... Aggressor website: CAUTION
 
I was on that boat. It was Suzana 1 aka Red Sea Aggressor 1, a diving boat from Aggressor company. We were on a Brothers-Daedalus-Elphinstone liveaboard. On Thursday (Oct 31) night, at approx 00:30am we were waken up by the smoke in our cabin (no fire alarm). Fire was already well advanced.
Most of us could escape by a small emergency exit to the main deck. The crew was sleeping above passengers’ cabins, so we woke most of them up.
It is not true that the American woman went back to get her laptop. No one on the boat said that. She did not even have a laptop with her on the boat.
We then had to jump into the water without life jackets because flames were already too big.
We got rescued by the only other diving boat standing nearby (Emperor).
We are still in Egypt as we all lost our passeport. The news has not been widespread yet. And by the way the pictures from the article seem to be from the event (the boat continued to burn for hours before in sunk in the morning).
 
I was on that boat. It was Suzana 1 aka Red Sea Aggressor 1, a diving boat from Aggressor company. We were on a Brothers-Daedalus-Elphinstone liveaboard. On Thursday (Oct 31) night, at approx 00:30am we were waken up by the smoke in our cabin (no fire alarm). Fire was already well advanced.
Most of us could escape by a small emergency exit to the main deck. The crew was sleeping above passengers’ cabins, so we woke most of them up.
It is not true that the American woman went back to get her laptop. No one on the boat said that. She did not even have a laptop with her on the boat.
We then had to jump into the water without life jackets because flames were already too big.
We got rescued by the only other diving boat standing nearby (Emperor).
We are still in Egypt as we all lost our passeport. The news has not been widespread yet. And by the way the pictures from the article seem to be from the event (the boat continued to burn for hours before in sunk in the morning).

So sad to hear of this. Glad most made it out safe. My thoughts and prayers are with the family of the woman who perished. May she RIP.

Lessons learned for me: Be a strong swimmer. Always be prepared for a fire evacuation on a boat. It is very real and can happen to any one of us. I don’t think anyone needs to be convinced of that now, after recent events.
 
@Antho. Thank you for your first hand report, and I am so sorry that you had to be part of that traumatic experience. My condolences to the family and friends of the woman who did not survive.
 

Back
Top Bottom