In recent news an Australian publication ‘The Age’ reported an amazing survival story of 4 Russian divers who went missing for over 24 hrs in shark infested waters near Marsa Alam, Egypt.
Vitaly Ivanov,Anna Filippenko, Dmitry Smerdov and Sergei Larionov were swept away by a strong current while diving at one of Egypt’s top dive locations in the Red Sea. The group were said to be among 23 tourists on board a Bohemia luxury wooden motor yacht, which runs dive tours in the area. The group was noted as missing when only 19 resurfaced. Authorities were notified and a search was sent out with no avail. As the search was called of at nightfall the 4 divers said they tried swimming back to shore.
Separated in the dark of the night and over 20kms away, Ivanov made it to shore at a near by village the next morning. Rescuers found the other 3 of his group later in that day.
The Red Sea is a very popular dive destination with it’s unique reefs as well as sharks. Spotting hammerheads, oceanic whitetips, bull sharks and tiger sharks among 44 shark species recorded here is what draws divers Red Sea diving despite difficult diving conditions like strong currents. No strangers to large dive tours, operators in Egypt don’t have a very clean track record and this sort of incident is not unheard of. Egyptian authorities have reported the deaths of 30 foreign divers last year alone.
Irresponsible operators? Or just bad luck? Here’s hoping both divers and dive operators take this incident as a lesson to tighten safety measure when diving in larger groups.
*Photos by star5112 and fearlessRich on flickr
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Tragic story. Not only for the divers but for the diving community as a whole. This sort of event happens so infrequently that when it does happen it becomes a major headline and the realities of dive safety take a hit. As an example, in 2001 there was a media frenzy over the increased number of shark attacks that were occuring. Even Larry King got involved. It became known as the Summer of the Shark. As compared to most years there were actually less than the average number of attacks per year.
What this story doesn’t address is how people died. I’m willing to bet my certification that at least 90% were due to diver errors. Diving beyond their experience, undisclosed health issues, alchohol, and plain ignorance. There are a number of cases of people that drowned because they forgot to turn their air on before they got in the water. Statistically, there is 1 death per 200,000 dives. To me that says you’re more likely to suffer a fatality driving to the dive site than you are on the dive itself.
Did these divers have the proper training or were they just “resort divers” out diving on a whim? Did they have the proper equipment such as a safety sausage? Why is it that 19 divers surfaced but a group of 4 that were diving together were didn’t make it back to the line? Did they follow the instructions of the Dive Master or were they doing their own thing?
This story also fails to address the fact that all the divers survived.
I’ve read a similar story where 3 Russian divers were lost at sea off Egypt exactly a year ago. After the third day rescue workers called off the search. Perhaps divers are to blame for part of it but I wonder how the operators could return without noticing 4 divers are not on the boat. Are safety norms ignored in sites like Eqypt and other places where the number of divers are more and turnover for operators is higher?