There was a boat accident in the Red Sea late last month. The Carlton Queen, a diving boat, capsized off the coast off the coast of Hurghada, Egypt.
Fortunately, all 26 passengers and the crew survived, but it has just been reported that they have plans to pursue legal action for the trauma caused.
In addition, some of the guests set up a GoFundMe to raise funds for the diving equipment they lost. The page states, “during the event, we had to deal with a lack of safety equipment on board, live rafts with malfunctions, flares that did not ignite, and an untrained crew.”
The guests also claimed that the captain “was among the first to leave the boat.”
However, The Carlton Fleet, the tourism company that owns the boat, disputed this in the following statement: “needless to say, the safe return of all those on board bears testament to the crew members’ effective management of the situation, which spared the lives of all passengers,”
What Happened?
As noted by Business Insider, “it is still unclear why the boat, which had only been refurbished last year, capsized on a day with calm conditions.
One of the passengers, David Taylor, shared the harrowing experience with The Telegraph. One moment he was sleeping in his cabin, and the next he found himself himself thrown from the bunk bed. His adult son was also in the cabin.
Taylor told the publication, “I knew something was wrong when I could see fish swimming outside my cabin room’s window. It was horrendous. When we realized we had capsized, we knew we were in trouble.”
Panic set in as the vessel slowly, but surely filled with water. Taylor explained that he and his son couldn’t use the stairwell, and added “nobody came to help us,” at least at first.
An Experienced Diver Saved The Father and Son
Fernando Suarez Meilla happened to have been getting his camera from his cabin when trouble started to brew. He managed to stay calm as he “checked every cabin for other passengers before trying to find a way out.”
All three men tried to access the emergency hatch in the hallway, but it was blocked off. Taylor explained that they had to “clamber out of the hold and onto the top deck.”
After giving the father and son a leg up to escape, Meilla himself had to get out another way.
He said, “I jumped back into the submerged part of the boat and swam 15 meters below the water’s surface, managing to escape that way.”