Red Sea dive boat survivors say they were ‘pressured to sign documents’

Survivors of the deadly sinking of a dive boat in the Red Sea say they were forced to sign official witness statements in Arabic, which they could not understand and which had been translated from English by an employee of the boat company.

They say the man also tried to get them to sign waivers stating that they were not charging anyone with a “criminal offense.”

The 11 survivors who spoke to the BBC also accused Egyptian authorities of trying to cover up what happened, saying investigators were determined to blame a huge wave.

The Sea Story was carrying 46 people when it sank in the early hours of November 25 last year: four bodies have been recovered and seven people are still missing, including two British divers.

Neither the Egyptian government nor the boat operators (Dive Pro Liveaboard, based in Hurghada) have responded to our questions.

On Tuesday, The BBC revealed multiple accusations from survivors about security failures. on board the ship. A prominent oceanographer who analyzed meteorological data also said it was implausible that a large wave had hit the ship.

Within hours of being brought ashore, survivors say they were subjected to what one described as “an interrogation,” some from their hospital beds, by people they were told were judges.

Those who did not need hospital treatment were interviewed at a nearby resort, said other survivors, who reported feeling the same pressure.

“We were told we couldn’t leave the room until everyone’s statements had been made,” says Lancashire NHS doctor Sarah Martin.

The judges were part of an Egyptian investigation into the causes of the sinking, although survivors say it was unclear exactly who was directing it.

Survivors say the fact that an employee of the company that owned the Sea Story translated their initial statements into Arabic was a clear conflict of interest.

Spanish diver Hissora González said the man did not initially introduce himself as an employee. “He just said, ‘You have to tell me what happened and then you have to sign this paper.'”

It wasn’t until later, several people we spoke to say, that the man told them he worked for Dive Pro Liveaboard.

The survivors claim that, after being translated by the man, their statements were given to investigators, something that surprised Lisa Wolf. “A normal judge cannot accept a translation from someone who is obviously fully involved in the process.”

One survivor, who is an investigator for the Norwegian police, said she had “no idea” what the four Arabic pages returned to her really said. “They could have written anything. I don’t know what I signed,” explained Frøydis Adamson. Under his signature he says he wrote that he had not been able to read the documents.

“We were in shock and just wanted to go home,” Hissora said.

Representatives of the boat’s operators, Dive Pro Liveaboard, also repeatedly attempted to pressure people into signing waivers (survivors say), which would have led them to accept the statement: “I am not accusing anyone of any criminal offense.”

Justin Hodges, an American diver who was also rescued, told us that he was given the “release of liability document,” written in English, while giving his witness statement.

He said he had thought the person he was speaking to was “an official,” but at that point he learned he worked for the company.

“He snuck in with the authorities,” Justin says. “The fact that he tried to hold us harmless at that point was crazy to me.”

At least some of the people we spoke to did not sign the document.

Everyone we spoke to said they had not been allowed to keep copies of their statements, but the BBC was told that some people had managed to translate the documents on their phones. Many of them told us that key, damning details they had conveyed verbally were left out of the paperwork.

“Everything related to the status of the liferafts and safety issues on the ship disappeared,” says Lisa.

Sarah and Hissora recounted the same experience. “They just put in what they wanted,” Hissora says.

Survivors also say authorities seemed determined to blame the tragedy on a huge wave from the beginning.

This despite the fact that many of those rescued said the waves were not too big to prevent them from swimming. A leading oceanographer told the BBC that contemporary weather data from the nearest airport strongly supports the survivors’ memories.

Hissora asked if he would eventually be able to see a copy of the investigators’ final report, but says he was told it wasn’t necessary. “(It’s as if) they already knew that the cause was a wave,” he says.

When he asked again, Hissora said he was told that “the only person responsible for this is the sea.” She believes authorities had already made up their minds before the investigation even began.

Sarah shares Hissora’s concerns and says the judges were also “very anxious” that the survivors did not blame anyone for the accident.

Several survivors say they were told that if they wanted to hold someone accountable, they had to name a specific, individual crime they were accused of.

“Just because I couldn’t name the person and the crime didn’t mean someone wasn’t to blame,” Sarah says.

A last-ditch attempt by Dive Pro Liveaboard to get survivors to sign waivers was made when a group was trying to leave for Cairo, Justin says.

After losing their passports at sea, he says a company representative told the group that the documents they were presented with were authorization documents to pass through checkpoints.

“But then I get to the bottom of it and the last sentence is the same disclaimer question,” a repeat of the one he says he was asked to sign when he gave his witness statement.

Justin says he went to alert the others, and when he returned with the man he believed was trying to set him up, the documents had “magically disappeared” and been replaced by more official-looking documents.

“My blood was boiling,” he says.

The BBC has not seen the exemption documents or copies of them.

Relatives and friends of the two missing Britons, Jenny Cawson and Tarig Sinada from Devon, say they have consistently received biased and inaccurate news from the Egyptian government.

For example, after the disaster they say they were told that the ship had not been found, even though they saw survivors of the shipwreck being brought ashore on television. They ask for an open investigation.

“It seems the Egyptian authorities are doing everything they can to sweep this under the rug,” says friend Andy Williamson. “They want to protect their tourism industry.”

In March, a fire on another Dive Pro Liveaboard boat, the Sea Legend, killed a German tourist.

Last year, Maritime Survey International, an independent consultancy, produced a report on dive boat safety in the Red Sea. It inspected eight vessels, not including any operated by Dive Pro Liveaboard, and found that none had “a planned maintenance system, safety management system or stability books” – a crucial document for avoiding capsizes.

It also found that design standards were “poor and all vessels lacked watertight bulkheads, doors and hatches.”

It concluded that not a single ship was safe and that the dive boat industry in Egypt “plies its trade largely unregulated.”