Kategorie: News
Sloppiness and no end
The fire drama on board the US dive liveaboard "Conception", about 30 kilometers from the Californian coastal town of Santa Barbara, in which 34 divers fell victim in the early morning hours of September 2 has apparently not, as hoped, given an initial spark in terms of "safety on liveaboard vessels”. Otherwise, one can not explain it, that barely two months later - in the night of November 1st - an anchoring liveaboard went up in flames and an American diver died aboard the "Red Sea Aggressor I". A similar situation in Egypt compared to the one in California. (Taucher.Net reported extensively!)
Unlike in September on board of the "Conception", such a devastating catastrophe with many fatalities did not happen in Egypt, which was not due to the functioning security systems, nor to the caution of the crew; it was just coincidence or better said: just luck!
"When the survivors reconstructed the events in the following days, we agreed on almost every point: the operators of the ship had - in our eyes - ignored every conceivable safety measure. The catastrophe would have been avoidable", was the conclusion of Michael Houben, the author of the report, who only barely escaped the flames aboard the" Red Sea Aggressor I "with his dive partner.
Again, the question arises, how much more must happen to let the wake-up call not only penetrate into the offices of the owners and operators of the many hundred safari boats, but also to ask clearly how low is the safety awareness of the guests and divers aboard this popular diving tours actually?
The members of our editorial team have already participated in one or the other tour on board of liveaboards. And almost all have repeatedly noticed more or less extensive safety deficiencies, sloppiness or misconduct of crew members ... Our longtime colleague and author Linus Geschke has already driven 37 liveaboard trips in Egypt, knows almost all routes and numerous ships and his Summary is sobering:
"On 37 dive safaris in the Red Sea, I have never once experienced that the emergency exit was not only shown to the guests, but also demonstrated. And smoke detectors? They are there! Mostly with an empty battery or even worse without any power source in it."
Anyone who perceives such things and does not criticize acts negligently on their own behalf. And also this facet urgently needs to be put to the test, because who deliberately puts himself in danger without reprimanding the cause of the defect need not be surprised if he suddenly finds himself in the midst of a drama in which he had not actually booked a role.
The experienced liveaboard expert Linus Geschke also sees it this way: "To be honest, the pleasure of diving, the enjoyment and the great atmosphere on board was a drag on me a few times in order not to mess around with existing safety defects." Although almost everyone knows that on liveaboard vessels, whether on tour or anchored, (fire)guards must be set up; this simple safety measure usually does not take place. "The only real (fire)guard I ever encountered on a liveaboard was a fellow traveler who suffered from sleep disturbances," Linus says from his experience.
So there was no fireguard neither on the "Conception" nor on the "Red Sea Aggressor I" according to existing statements of eyewitnesses. Much worse, when the awakened guests – they woke up by the smell of fire and the warning calls of fellow travelers - aboard the "Red Sea Aggressor I" noticed that the main exit was not passable because of the fire, they tried to open the emergency exit in the bow cabin to get through the emergency hatch up to the foredeck. According to witnesses, it was evidently that the hatch could not be opened until after a considerable amount of force has been exerted because a crew member had made himself comfortable (with his mattress) directly on the escape door for a night's rest ...
Meanwhile, the investigative machinery has started. In Egypt, the district attorney is investigating and as can be heard, some crew members have been detained. The Egyptian Authority for Maritime Safety (EAMS) is the licensing authority and is responsible for the periodic inspections and renewals of licenses and permits. EAMS is also responsible for the control of the safety equipment on board of the vessels and for the training of the crew, including fire fighting measures on board. The EAMS has also engaged in the investigation.
In Cairo, an investigative team of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is said to want to investigate the incident itself with fire and security experts, because the only casualty of the desastrous night is supposed to be a US American veteran and embassy employee.
CDWS Chairman, Hesham Gabr, told us on request that the CDWS would now actively engage with the issue and voice their serious concerns about the effectiveness of the usual regulatory review and training procedures. Hesham Gabr also acknowledges that, according to the eyewitnesses interviewed, there were apparently significant deficiencies in various security areas on board of the vessel.
The following investigations are likely to bring more details to light, because unlike the authorities initially reported, the wreckage of the burnt out "Red Sea Aggressor I" is not at 200 meters depth, but on a reef plateau in moderate depths. Scubadivers on a daily trip reported that they had spotted widely scattered wreckage parts of a ship with obvious burn marks and bursted dive tanks ...
We at Taucher.Net will interfere even more intensively with this area of diving safety and put our fingers further into the wounds of security slump. Our databases contains around 450 liveaboards, which have been rated in more than 5000 reports by our users. Very often they write about comfort, the quality of food and the helpfulness and friendliness of the crew and of course the diving areas. We would now like to ask you to tell us about your special experiences and impressions on safety on liveaboards. Write us your observations and evaluations either by mail (liveaboard@taucher.net) or directly via the following form in our database or via Facebook on Taucher.Net. We will review your comments and notes to get a more accurate picture and then report in detail. Your comments will then be made available to all Taucher.Net readers - in our database at the liveaboard section. It's time do deal with the failures and to start asking for more safety!
More Informationen
Conception report I (German):
https://taucher.net/diveinside-34_todesopfer_bei_naechtlichem_brand_auf_tauchschiff____conception____vor_kaliforniens_kueste-kaz8055
Conception report II (German):
https://taucher.net/diveinside-voruntersuchung_abgeschlossen__neue_details_zum____conception___-desaster-kaz8066
Red Sea Aggressor I report:
https://taucher.net/diveinside-egypt__red_sea_aggressor_1_burning-kaz8119