Prepared by Hossam Helmy chairman of Red Sea Diving Safari and South Representative of the Red Sea Association for diving and watersports. On the 6th of January 2007, 5 divers left by speedboat from Marsa Jabal al Rosas for a dive to Elphinstone Reef, organized by Beach Safari Dive Center.
- Beach Safari Dive Center has a valid tourist diving license and a valid license from the Egyptian Diving Federation.
- The divers are: Elena Suldukova Russian PADI Diving Instructor.
Dmitri Kapitonov Russian Advanced PADI with 110 dives.
Vladislov Kiptov Russian PADI Open Water Diver and following An Advanced open Water course by Elena.
Michel van Assendelft Dutch Advanced Open Water Diver with120 dives
Mahmoud Ahmed Hamdan Egyptian Advanced Open Water Diver with180 dives
The five divers got separated from their boat by bad weather and sea condition . Vladislov Kiptov managed to reach the shore, the other four went missing.
According to Vladislov the sequences of events and investigations were as follows:
At 8 o’clock in the morning the group left Marsa Jabal al Rosas by speedboat heading for Elphinstone Reef and arrived there 45 minutes later. The guests were briefed about the upcoming dive in the Russian language by Elena, and Mahmoud gave an English briefing to Michel, the Dutch diver. The plan was to reach the northern tip of the reef by starting the dive at the eastern side of the reef halfway along the length and drifting north. The maximum depth was agreed to be 25m with a maximum dive time of 60 minutes.
Upon reaching the northern tip after about 10 minutes diving they faced a strong current to the north. Near the plateau at the tip there were sharks in the blue. Elena, Dimitri and Michel went into the blue to get a closer look at the sharks ) Michel had a camera and wants to take picture of the shark while Mahmoud and Vladislov stayed behind at the reef. Elena gestured to Vladislov not to go any deeper. He stopped at a depth of 25m.after a while (time unknown) the group reunited again at the end of the plateau.
Next Vladislov sees that Michel show his pressure gauge to Dmitri and that was 40 bar while Vladislov had 150 bar after a while Michel makes the out of air sign. And takes the octopus of Dmitri and together they start a continuous ascent to the surface. Upon reaching the surface the air of Dmitri is finished. The rest of the group follows slowly and makes a short deco stop during ascent. The total dive time has been 30 min.
All come together at the surface at approximately 100m from the reef, and experience a rough sea with high waves 1.5: 2 meter high and a strong current north west on a speed of 2 KM per hour. They only notice a top of a big boat in the distance which they don’t manage to alert and they heard the noise of engines speed boats coming and going without seeing them. The diver Michel happens to be tired. Mahmoud inflated his surface buoy and within minutes they lost visual contact with the reef and the boat because of the high waves. They stayed drifting to the northwest. Before sunset they noticed a boat in the distance (most probably anchored off shore at Abu Dabbab Reef or searching and cannot see them). With daylight gone Vladislov managed to see lights at the shore (aerial antenna at Abu Dabbab). Most people of the group were getting tired and he decided to leave the group to try to swim to the shore. He left his equipment behind and reached the shore after a swim of approximately 3, 5 hours.
The sequence of events according to Vladislov was recorded shortly after he reached the shore in English and some days later again in Russian by telephone by Mr. Andry husband of Elena. During the first interview Vlasdislov mentioned that he and Mahmoud stayed behind at the reef and the three other divers went after the sharks. During the second interview the situation was the other way around, that is Vlasislov and Mahmoud went deeper after the sharks and the other three divers stayed at the reef. The air consumption of the individual divers according to Vladislov is contrary to the second scenario though. He and Mahmoud had plenty of air, while at least two of the others were out of air in the end. This didn’t affect the events that followed though. SEQUENCE OF REPORTING AND SEARCH Efforts: Day 6/1
10:15 Ramadan Hemdan, the driver of the speedboat, informs all speedboats and daily boats at Elphinstone that he has 5 missing divers. The boats start to search the area. 10:30 a telephone call from a daily boatdive from emperor Dive Center informs Hesham Mustafa Kamal, representing the Red Sea diving Association, who was at holiday in Alexandria. 10:35 Hesham informs Major Ahmed abd el aziz from the coastguard intelligence in Marsa Alam and Ahmed Bastauwi, the base leader of Shagra Diving Center. He requests him to send speedboats to help searching. 10:45 Major Ahmed informs Emed Gawli, the manager of Beach Sagfari, that his dive center is missing 5 divers at Elphinstone Reef.
In the meantime the search by boats at Elphinstone, accompanied by two speedboats from Shagra and the one from Beach Safari Dive Center, continues till 6 o’clock pm, half an hour after sunset. And there was a daily dive boat from emperor dive center that do a search round Elphinstone reef and leave after the second dive.
21:30 Vladislov is picked up at Badawia Resort, about 25 km north northwest of Elphinstone and immediately taken to the baromedical recompression center. They inform Shagra Dive Center at 10 o’clock pm.
22:30 Half an hour later two speedboats leave from Marsa Shagra, plus one from Orca Dive Center at Marsa Abu Dabbab, and search the area north for the missing group without success till 5:030 am. One daily dive boat seal at night from Marsa Nakari to be sunrise time in Marsa Shagra to join the search north east of Elphinstone Day 7/1 All diving centers that operate in the area have been alerted and join the search with their boats, starting from sunrise. 14:00 A helicopter from the military rescue and searching unit joins the operation. Mahmoud Ibrahim from the Red Sea Diving Association joins the helicopter. The helicopter searches a triangular area within the coordinates 25 18 00N/ 34 52 00E, 26 00 00N/ 35 10 00E and 26 00 00/ 34 30 00E. Day 8/1 All boats from the diving centers keep searching. 08:00 The helicopter starts the search of a triangular area within the coordinates 24 40 00N/ 35 20 00E, 26 25 00N/ 35 20 00E and 26 25 00N/ 34 10 00E till 16:30 hours. Day 9/1 The search continues by boats only.( Wadi El Gimal Island) Shaab Samadi – Shaab Abu Dabbab, Shaab Marsa Alam, Shaab Elphinstone, Shaab Elgadir, and Shaab Sharm PS The aerial search for the first two days was mobilized by the Association and the Red Sea Governorate and funded by the Ministry of Tourism. Day 10/1 A helicopter joins the search again, accompanied by Mahmoud Aziz, dive guide from Shagra diving Center. The search area has the coordinates: 24 30 00N/ 35 15 00E, 26 50 00N/ 35 15 00E and 26 50 00N/ 34 00 00E . Boats of diving centers keep searching Day 11/1 A C130 plane searches a trapezium shaped area within coordinates: 23 40 00N/ 36 05 00E, 23 40 00N/ 35 30 00E, 27 00 00N, 35 20 00E and 27 00 00N/ 34 00 00E. Day 12/1 A C130 and helicopter search the area with the same coordinates as on 11/1. A speedboat from (Coraya Dive Center) searches the area of Marsa Moubarak. At night a live aboard boat leaves from Hamata to Zabargad Island. PS The Aerial search of the last three days was arranged by the Dutch embassy in Cairo and funded by the families of the missing divers from Russia and Holland, Day 13/1 Zabargad Island is searched by foot. A speedboat from Shagra Village (Shagra dive center) searches the coastal zone over a length of 80 km southwards till Wadi Jimal.
Day 14/1 A speedboat from Shagra Village (Shagra dive center) searches the coastal zone over a length of 100 km northwards till Marsa Wizr. Live aboard came back from Zabargad Island to Hamata. Time 16.00 the search is stopped diving centers had been informed to report if they found any thing related to the accident.
Sea condition during the accident
(Strong tide current coupled with strong North West wind caused: 1- Strong local current top of the north Plato. 2- High waves 1.5:2 Meter on the north of the north Plato)
posted
Thats so awful! i hope God will help them and inshallah they will be saved,don know how though... I am really shocked...
Posts: 65 | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
Mirta, what do you mean you hope they will be 'saved'? The missing divers are gone, dead since Jan 6....
Thanks for keeping us informed, imagine.
Greetings to Hurghada! We expect snow any day now here! Posts: 30135 | From: The owner of this website killed ES....... | Registered: Feb 2004
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I hear its already snow back in denmark tiger, so it should be arriving to you very very soon. Meanwhile, i got a little red sunburn in my face yesterday hahahahahahaha. not to rub it in or anything Posts: 712 | From: Hurghada | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
Tigerlily,no1 knows if they r gone or not,corps were not found so how can u say they r gone,or do u know things others dont? on the russian web-sites its till now being reported ab works done to find them,all depends on God's will,so don be so pessimistic,there r stories that lost ppl r being found after years!
Posts: 65 | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
It's about being realistic, mirta, this incident occured 2.5 weeks ago, no one was rescued besides the one Russian guy who swam for his life back to the shore.
These individuals wore plain diver outfits, they didn't have a boat for finding shelter, when they guy left to the shore they others were already too tired to follow him......
And technology changed drastically in the last 100 years so it got way easier to find them.
These people which are still missing are dead ...... unless they are held against their will somewhere and also then by now you should have heard about random demands or something like that. Do you want to hear some conspiracy theories?
I do have couple of questions though. If indeed the speedboat driver alerted at 10:15 a.m. officials about the missing divers and they went out for search (anyway how many boats went out immediately?Maybe not enough?) why they couldn't be found in the approximate area during daylight? When the Russian guy started swimming away from the group it meant it was already dark or getting dark as 'lights on the coast' are mentioned so the sight was clear?
The diving time is stated with around 30 min so the question is how can these 1.5 - 2 m high waves appear so it was approximately not after 10:00 a.m. when they all came up at the same time. And high waves doesn't mean bad weather, does it? They were able to see a boat.
Also its stated that they heard motors of speedboats but couldn't see them? So at this point the sea was even again, it must have been quiet.
When the Russian man started swimming to the shore what time was it? Around 5 p.m. and being drifting in the water already for at least seven hours?
Why not boats from many more diver centers were not alerted immediately, where there to busy with their own business and weather that day was okay for diving? Where were they?
The coast guard was alerted for joining the search but where were the boats? And how about helicopters?
Were there also signs of inadequate maintenance of the technical equipment during the dive?
I just think too much time went by in finding the lost divers and more manpower should have been present in the search shortly after the alert.
Oh, I just read, it took the Egyptians around 29 hours after the divers went into the water to send only ONE helicopter up in the air!
Bravo, the more I read, the clearer the picture gets....
Now how can a tragedy like this can get avoided next time? What to learn out of this incident?
How does the alert system in such cases work??? Posts: 30135 | From: The owner of this website killed ES....... | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
i guess u dont believe in God,am realistic enough,but i still believe in God and his power over all.
Posts: 65 | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
Mirta, don't get cheap here now. I am trying to understand what happened on January 6 ...... do you?
Posts: 30135 | From: The owner of this website killed ES....... | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
excuse me? don get cheap? well i really dont understand what u mean and i don want to understand to be honest.
Posts: 65 | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
Well you pray to god and I - like many others - want explanations from responsible authorities starting with the head of the Red Sea Diving Association all the way up to the top to the coast guard officials.
It just looks like no one wants to be blamed for the death of the foreign tourists here.
Posts: 30135 | From: The owner of this website killed ES....... | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
The best way to locate someone in a swell is by air. Its too bad they didn't have some flares. But it is often hours before choppers or planes are scrambled to search for people. About the swell, it sounds like they drifted into it. Motorboats can handle that kind of water fine, but you can't see stuff in the water at all, and a little head bobbing in the water may not be able to see the boats. There is definitely something weird about that story. They could have survived if the water temp wasn't too cold and they found something to float on. Or they might have gotten eaten by something.
Posts: 1161 | From: wo xiang xiao bian ji si le | Registered: Oct 2005
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