On 25 November 2024 the tourist boat Sea Story sank in the Red Sea. In the immediate aftermath, sixteen people were confirmed missing, including twelve foreigners and four Egyptians, while 28 others were rescued.[1] The survivors were found in the Wadi El Gemal area of the sea.[1] The warship El Fateh of the Egyptian Navy assisted in the rescue.[1] The next day, four people were found dead, while the number of missing was lowered to seven as five more were rescued alive.[2]
The Red Sea coast is a major tourist destination in Egypt, however while dozens of dive boats operate every day the robust safety regulations are unevenly enforced. Earlier in November 2024, 30 people were rescued from a sinking boat near the Daedalus reef, in June 2024 24 French tourists were evacuated before the boat sank, and in 2023 three British tourists died after a fire broke out on their vessel.[3]
The M/Y Sea Story is a four-deck motor yacht built out of wood in 2019 in and launched in 2022. The Sea Story was a luxury yacht with a sundeck, a leisure deck, three salons, two dining areas and a bar.[4][5][6] According to officials the boat had been inspected in March 2024 and there had been no issues found, and it had obtained a license for a year.[7]
Sinking
Sea Story, a four-deck wooden-hulled motor yacht, had left Port Ghalib near Marsa Alam on 23 November for a diving trip of five days and was due to dock on 29 November in Hurghada.[3] The Egyptian Meteorological Authority had warned of expected high seas on 24 and 25 November and advised against maritime activity for both days.[8] According to reporters, the boat was carrying 31 tourists from Britain, China, Finland, Poland, Slovakia and Spain as well as 13 crew.[1][9][3]
A large wave struck the boat causing it to capsize and sink 46 nautical miles from the shore off Marsa Alam in 5-7 minutes, before coming to rest mostly submerged about 12 metres below the water line, with about half a metre above the water line.[10][11] A distress signal was received from a member of the crew by the regional Red Sea control center at 5:30a.m. local time.[8] Twenty-eight people were rescued from the sinking vessel the day of the sinking.[12] Some of the survivors were airlifted from the rescue vessels for medical treatment, while others were assisted on the vessels until a military frigate transported them back to shore. Red Sea Governor Major General Amr Hanafi indicated that military aircraft and naval units were still searching the day of the rescue for those still unaccounted for.[8]
The day after the sinking it was announced that four additional people; two Belgians, one Egyptian and one Swiss nationals were recovered alive while four others were recovered dead.[7] According to a rescue diver some of the recovered passengers were caught in their cabins and unable to get out before the vessel sank.[12]
While authorities have not confirmed nationalities of the tourists, the Chinese embassy reported two of their citizens were rescued; the Finnish foreign ministry that one of their citizens were missing; and the Polish foreign ministry confirmed that two of the tourists may have had Polish citizenship.[3]
Aftermath
Divers who have dived with the company speculate that the boat was not as young as the owners claimed and that it wasn't built for open water. Past customers have complained about the lack of standards and safety equipment aboard the ships owned by the same company that owned M/Y Sea Story.[13]
On 2 December, the search for the rescue of the seven missing people was called off, but there was no official confirmation by the coast guard.[14]
Capsizing or keeling over occurs when a boat or ship is rolled on its side or further by wave action, instability or wind force beyond the angle of positive static stability or it is upside down in the water. The act of recovering a vessel from a capsize is called righting. Capsize may result from broaching, knockdown, loss of stability due to cargo shifting or flooding, or in high speed boats, from turning too fast.
The MS al-Salam Boccaccio 98 was an Egyptian Ro/Ro passenger ferry, operated by El Salam Maritime Transport, that sank on 3 February 2006 in the Red Sea en route from Duba, Saudi Arabia, to Safaga in southern Egypt.
MV Salem Express was a passenger ship that sank in the Red Sea. It is notable due to the heavy loss of life which occurred when she sank shortly after striking a reef at around 11:13pm on December 14, 1991. Salem Express was a roll-on/roll-off passenger ferry which operated for 25 years, with many different owners, names and regular routes at that time.
On 3 October 2013, a boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa. It was reported that the boat had sailed from Misrata, Libya, but that many of the migrants were originally from Eritrea, Somalia and Ghana. An emergency response involving the Italian Coast Guard resulted in the rescue of 155 survivors. On 12 October it was reported that the confirmed death toll after searching the boat was 359, but that further bodies were still missing; a figure of "more than 360" deaths was later reported.
In September 2014, it was announced by the International Organization for Migration that a ship sank off the Malta coast on September 11, 2014, killing around 500 migrants. There were eleven survivors. The ship left Damietta, Egypt, on September 6 and sank five days later on September 11. Two Palestinian survivors of the wreck accuse the traffickers of intentionally sinking the vessel after the refugees would not agree to transfer to a different ship.
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Egypt 
A photo of the boat involved 
