On Saturday morning, a dive boat from Marsa Alam’s Beach Safari Diving Camp put out an emergency call at Elphinstone Reef when five divers – four tourists and a dive guide - became overdue.
Searches, including use of a military helicopter, naval vessels and volunteering safari and day dive-boats, were launched. One missing diver swam unaided to shore after nightfall, but the others have not been seen again.
On Sunday, sea conditions remained rough. The divers had a yellow SMB but it was thought they might not possess flashlights or whistles. Sea temperature was reported to be around 68Â?F.
The helicopter was stood down on Monday evening and, last night, offshore surface searches ceased. The Red Sea Association of Diving and Watersports, the search and rescue committee of which steered operations, said that coastal searches would continue, in the expectation that bodies may be washed ashore.
This morning, the RSADW confirmed that the helicopter was, however, likely to take to the air for another day, funded privately by Dutch sources. One of the missing divers is a Dutch national.
'A member of the association from Marsa Alam will be on the flight to co-ordinate the search area,” RSADW Chairman Karim Helal told Divernet.
“I am also informed today that the family of the Dutch diver is offering a 10,000 Euro reward for anyone who finds him.
The missing divers have been named as Dutchman Michel van Assendelft, a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver; Russian Dmitry Kapitonov, a PADI Open Water Diver; Russian Elena Sundukova, a PADI Instructor; and Egyptian Mahmoud Ahmed Hamdan, the dive guide.
The diver who reached shore is Russian Vladislav Lukyanchenko. He landed at Badawia resort, some miles north of Elphinstone. He reportedly lost consciousness for a while, was hospitalised and released the next day.
Lukyanchenko told officials that the group had entered the water at about 9am in rough conditions. They surfaced about half an hour later to find that they had separated from their boat. Despite their SMB they were not spotted by the boats they could see searching for them.
The current turned and took the divers northward, the coast in sight. They held hands to stay together and keep alert. At nightfall, shore lights could be seen. Lukyanchenko decided to swim for it, leaving his BC with the others. Aided by the current, he landed at about 11pm.
On the same day the Marsa Alam divers went missing, another Russian, named by the Russian Foreign Ministry as Alexsei Borisov, is reported to have died while diving off EgyptÂ’s Dahab resort. So far, little is known about the incident. |
