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

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why would I question that it wasn't also covered in the rest of the world
In the UK Press it, was for one day only and then not headline news

The Media saturates coverage of stories that is of interest their audience. "World news" tends to get pushed to one side.

So I can see how most outlets wouldn't cover an incident to a CA dive boat, unless it was catering to a diving specific audience
 
A couple of posters in this thread have nentioned their doubt that Aggressor crew knew of Conception but I know that it was covered fairly extensively in Singapore, why would I question that it wasn't also covered in the rest of the world, especially countries that diving tourism?

The Conception fire but more significantly the deaths shattered the broader dive community and social media was all over it.

Everyone is connected nowadays.
It wasn't even covered that extensivly in Germany (probably 90% of the divers I was with on an Egypt LOB a couple of weeks ago did not know about it) and a fire on a dive boat in California is nothing that would be reported with more than a side note in Egypt. And while the owners/operators and maybe the dive guides might have heared of it, the rest of the crew won't. They are nice simple people that do not get much information on anthing outside their wolrd, sometimes tourists are better informed about things happening in Cairo than the locals in Hurghada.
 
Hello fellow divers, I was on the Red Sea Aggressor that caught fire last week. I am the friend and roommate of the amazing and beloved diver that died due to the negligence of the Aggressor company who have been attempting to malign and victim blame her from the very beginning. Ahmed, the owner/rep was surprisingly allowed in all of our initial Egyptian police interviews; and while representing the Agressor company, Ahmed repeatedly tried to twist, lie, and mistranslate what we said to the translator and to the Arabic speaking policeman.

First, our friend, the victim, did not return to the room for a computer. Second, the crew did not maintain or perform a 24hr fire watch (attested to by another diver) as we had been told by the crew that they did during our Day 1 safety briefing, and is the norm on boats. NONE of the fire alarms worked. There was NO alarm and NO bell, verbal or other crew alert of a fire or danger. We, the surviving divers are alive only because we woke on our own accord due to the suffocating smell of smoke and made our way to and through our below deck emegency hatch on our own. The crew did not rescue us except to pick us up in the zodiacs after we had to jump overboard just after midnight to save our lives. Although our crew miraculously got another zodiac in the water and got us out of the water and to a nearby ship, it was the a fellow diver and crew from the nearby moored rescuing ship Emperor Asmaa, that shouted for us to jump overboard, just before the tanks started exploding.

The Egyptian procecutors appropriately arrested Ahmed from the Aggressor, the day after, and I feel confident they will continue to investigate this horrific, senseless and 100% preventable tragedy fully and hold all those negligent responsible for our friend's death, and our near-deaths.

And, as if things couldn't have gotten worse, the Red Sea Aggressor treated us horribly. Despite promising us clothing and toiletries upon arrival at the hotel hours after docking and the police interviews, they left us in wet clothes and towels and shoeless for 15hrs after the fire. A generous Egyptian hotel shop owner, Ramen "Marco" took pity on us and offered all of us our choice of free shoes and clothing. I cannot thank him or the other strangers enough, those in addition to Marco who also stepped in to help: besides the rescue, Emperor Asmaa's crew and guests that gave us towels and their own dry clothes and emotional support; Charlotte Smurthwaite from the Sunrise Marina Resort guest services did everything she could to make things more bearable; a German guest in the hotel dining room that went to back to his room and returned with 3 pieces of clothing for a shirtless male diver, because the only shirt the diver owned was still drying after being washed the night before and he was almost denied entry to eat; and when a UK hotel guest Derek Gale heard me begging the Aggressor company over the hotel lobby phone to give us more than the paltry $123 they finally gave us at 3pm after the fire, which didn't go far considering our needs after losing everything, even if just a "loan" not a handout, so we could buy and have access to a cell for international calls to call loved ones and make arangements, buy a single pair of underware, and change of clothes, medication, etc, - to which they told me "they had given us all 'enough'" and refused us even a loan of money until we could get replacement bank cards (BTW, most of us didn't even have single piece of underware until 2.5days later), Derek returned with hudereds of British Pounds; also a big thanks to all those in the USA FBI and Embassy in Cairo that treated us so warmly, escorted us, expedited our replacement passports and provided us with other necessites and support which the Aggressor repeatedly refused to us.

At one point, Red Sea Agressor owner David Home even physically attacked and hurt me me, in an attempt to wrestle one of the two international phones they allowed the survivors to use out of my hand after I told him I wanted to speak to his boss and he refused to make the call himself. He had the nerve to call the US Embassy and claim I attacked him. I'm a USAF Veteran, and if my unimpeachable 24 years of civil service isnt enough, I welcome a lie detector to prove him wrong.

Regardless of your experience with or impression of the Agreessor Company world-wide in the past, I hope you boycott them out of principle of the matter...not just for their blantent negligence of a fellow diver's death, but for their victim blaming, which is a slap in the face of our friend and her family, and for the inhumane and insensitive way the Aggressor treated us, the survivors, after the fact. Plus, I don't want any other diver to ever go through this or be treated so horribly like we have been. There are plenty of other great diving companies, please vote with your wallet and go with anyone else besides the Aggressor Fleet. We trusted them by name for the qualty and safety record a USA run company represents. If they are willing to rubber-stamp franchises without holding them to basic safety standards, none of us, as guests are safe on the any of the Aggressor fleet. Laughably, they've offered us vouchers for a future trip with them as if I'd set foot on an Agreessor death-trap again.

Please post this statement to any sites that repeat the Aggressor's lies and blame the victim, or post a link in a reply to me so I can ask for a correction, we already have done so with another scuba article and they have respected our request for a change to the truth. Please warn all divers you know, and spread the truth from the survivors, on this matter. Eat, sleep, dive, and hopefully survive.

I am so sorry for you all to have experienced this and most especially for the loss of your friend.

It's good that you and your fellow survivors are speaking out about this. Hopefully, it will be good for you too.

When talking/writing about events, it will probably be best to preface/qualify all of which you are not absolutely sure with exactly that; just as you have done with regard to the hatch being added after news of the Conception fire.
 
It wasn't even covered that extensivly in Germany (probably 90% of the divers I was with on an Egypt LOB a couple of weeks ago did not know about it) and a fire on a dive boat in California is nothing that would be reported with more than a side note in Egypt. And while the owners/operators and maybe the dive guides might have heared of it, the rest of the crew won't. They are nice simple people that do not get much information on anthing outside their wolrd, sometimes tourists are better informed about things happening in Cairo than the locals in Hurghada.

I understand that and perhaps haven't expressed myself properly.

The dive leaders/cruise directors were expats during my cruise aboard her and that's who I meant.

Also, world news invariably covers major loss of life, ie, SE Asia ferry accidents etc.

Of course, as has also been pointed out, that doesn't mean people absorb the news.
 
Thank you to all who have provided insight into this incident. I am truly sorry that the customers of the Aggressor fleet have had to endure the original problem and the ones that seem to be self made or exacerbated by Aggressor to this point.
I would not want to be working the Aggressor booth at DEMA in a week.
 
Hello fellow divers, I was on the Red Sea Aggressor that caught fire last week. I am the friend and roommate of the amazing and beloved diver that died due to the negligence of the Aggressor company who have been attempting to malign and victim blame her from the very beginning.
My heartfelt condolences to the horrific loss of your friend!
Power and success to you and your - well, really all our - isn‘t it - cause of improving anything improbable to avoid such tragedy and avoidable loss of life!
Shame on those that deny and possibly attempt to alter truth in damage control efforts and possibly might not really have taken sufficient care to assure their own safety protocols are actually always followed meticulously. Disgraceful shame!
 
It wasn't even covered that extensivly in Germany (probably 90% of the divers I was with on an Egypt LOB a couple of weeks ago did not know about it) and a fire on a dive boat in California is nothing that would be reported with more than a side note in Egypt. And while the owners/operators and maybe the dive guides might have heared of it, the rest of the crew won't. They are nice simple people that do not get much information on anthing outside their wolrd, sometimes tourists are better informed about things happening in Cairo than the locals in Hurghada.

I was on an Egyptian liveaboard in Sept. and was very mindful of the Conception, so I made a point of checking the exit hatch. As far as I could tell, nobody in the crew on my boat had heard of the Conception. Maybe a third of the divers (mostly Europeans or Asians) had heard of it. When I mentioned it, I got several raised eyebrows, as in "this guy is just being paranoid/alarmist."

My impression is that it's not uncommon for bunks to be placed against exit hatches in crew quarters. It was the case in the Aggressor I, apparently, and had the bunk not been moved in time, it could have been deadly. I think passengers on any liveaboard should agree with whoever has the cabin with the escape hatch that he/she will test it once a day (at random times), to make sure that the hatch can open freely. It just takes a few seconds and could save a couple of dozen lives.
 
A couple of posters in this thread have nentioned their doubt that Aggressor crew knew of Conception but I know that it was covered fairly extensively in Singapore, why would I question that it wasn't also covered in the rest of the world, especially countries that diving tourism?

The Conception fire but more significantly the deaths shattered the broader dive community and social media was all over it.

Everyone is connected nowadays.

It was even on national news in the UK and in Europe so a lot of non-divers knew about the Conception fire. You cannot kill 34 people and keep it secret.
 
While it is certainly possible that many, or all, of the crew members on this dive boat were not aware of the Conception tragedy for reasons cited in other posts, I have no doubt that the Aggressor owners and managers were fully aware. Had they followed up with thorough inspections performed by knowledgable mariners, installation/repair of safety/life saving equipment, and insured sufficient crew staffing and procedures for a night fire watch, this horrific tragedy may have been avoided. Unfortunately, the Aggressor management, in concert with advertisers, will continue to try to put lipstick on this pig.
 
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