Escape from the Egyptian Bermuda triangle: Passengers describe terrible ordeal on a capsizing boat

David Taylor realized for the first time that the catastrophe had broken out when he discovered fish through his bullous eye, even though it should have offered a look into the sky.

he slept in his cabin on the Carlton Queen, a vacation diving boat on the Red Sea, and woke up with a dull blow after being thrown out of his bunk bed.

"I knew something was wrong when I saw fish swimming in front of the window of my cabin room," said Mr. Taylor, 53, an architectural technician from Nottinghamshire, on Sunday the Telegraph.

Within an hour, the Carlton Queen had dropped to the seabed. Incredibly, all 26 guests, including 15 British, survived the terrible torture together with the nine -member ship crew.

Back in Great Britain, guests told their ordeal for the first time after the boat-for no apparent reason-near Hurghada in an area of the Red Sea, which is known as an Egyptian Bermuda triangle and lies near the entrance to the Suez Canal.

Mr. Taylor and his 21-year-old son Christian praised the heroic deeds of a fellow passenger who saved them out of the lower deck. Fernando Suarez Meilla, a 60-year-old administrator in the EU Parliament in Brussels, brought father and son to safety after they had lost their orientation when the ship has lost. Then he got into the trap.

according to witnesses the sea was calm and the sky was bright blue when the 137 -foot long Carlton Queen suddenly got blessed after the appearance. What followed next, reads more like a story from the Poseidon adventure.

Mr. Taylor said: "It was terrible. When we realized that we were capsed, we knew that we were in difficulties that something was completely wrong."

he remembered: "We called for help and heard crashes over ourselves and had the deep feeling of fear that something terrible would happen. When we realized that we could not escape the stairs and nobody had come to help us.

Mr. Suarez Meilla had gone to his cabin to charge his digital camera when the boat began to sink. The taxboard side rose and it was thrown against the cabin window.

"The window I looked from looked at the seabed," he said. "Water penetrated through the cracks and the door was where the ceiling should be, so I knew that I was in trouble."

Mr. Suarez Meilla, an experienced diver, was lifted into the corridor, where he found Mr. Taylor and his son in "complete panic".

Mr. Suarez Meilla said: "I didn't panic, I was only sure that we had to get out as soon as possible."

The three men crawled down the hallway while the ship went down, and checked every cabin to make sure that nobody was trapped.

When they reached an emergency hatch, they found that the handle was defective and had to find an alternative escape route.

Mr. Suarez Meilla supported father and son to climb from the cargo area to the upper deck of the three -story boat. But this did not make her rescuer any obvious way to get out.

Mr. Taylor said: "Fernando had helped us to flee, and this part was still pursuing me, he told us that we should go and pointed out ... it was so incredibly difficult."

When Mr. Taylor made his way to safety, he was hit by a large metal tank on the head, causing blood to flow out of his forehead. He jumped into the water and the crew threw a buoy to him, and he and his son swam until the lifeguard ran out.

"Blood ran out of my head and I felt like that, so tired," said Mr. Taylor. "I don't know how the devil we are here, but thank God we are alive, that's all that matters."

In the meantime, Mr. Suarez Meilla found his own way by swimming to the bottom of the boat, where he fled through an open hatch after he thought every other way was "impossible".

"I jumped back into the undertaking part of the boat, swam 15 meters below the water surface and could escape. But when I reached the surface, there was no one nearby, the rescue raft was hundreds of meters away and I was alone," he recalls. A nearby ship that had rushed to the crime scene discovered him and took him out of the water.

The boat built in 2002 was on its second trip after the renovation last year. On the second day of a one -week diving holiday, vacationers were sank. But the guests had already complained that the ship fluctuated from one side to the other, but the crew scattered their concerns.

Toby Meadows, 48, a fashion consultant from the north of London, said: "I was on deck with my brother and we saw that the boat went over, so we stormed to the railing to sit on the side of the boat."

others did not make it that far and were thrown into the sea over the surface. You heard people scream "man overboard" while the crew and the guests got to safety.

Mr. Meadows accused some occupation members of leaving the ship and first jumped into the rescue island.

torches were lit and alarm were triggered. Some passengers spent half an hour in the sea that was allegedly affected by sharks before they were saved by another diving boat nearby.

vacationers have now started a fundraising campaign, partly to pay the equipment lost at sea, partly to sue the boat owners and the tour operator.

Mr. Taylor said: "Something like that should never happen again, it can't happen again." We were assured that it was safe, but why should a renovated new boat decrease in windless? ”

Passengers complained that they were not offered compensation, but instead a free vacation next year was offered to the same company. Mr. Suarez Meilla said: "We have lost everything, money, phones, passports, passes, everything, and they offer us the chance to come back." No chance. "

The Reifg area of Abu Nahas, where the Carlton Queen went down, is the most famous area for wreck diving. Due to its exposed location directly off the north coast of the island of Shedwan on the edge of the Gubal street, the reef is a danger to shipping. The four deepest wrecks, all of which are more than 30 meters under water, are popular diving goals.

The Carlton Fleet, owner of the Carlton Queen, was contacted with the request for a comment.

In a post on her Facebook page, it was said: “First of all, it should be mentioned that all guests and crew members have arrived safely on land and that nobody suffered serious injuries. Our office reacted quickly and all guests reacted directly in an all- including hotel.

"Another and detailed statement on the accident will follow as soon as we examined all causes and have had discussions with the crew, the police and the coast guard."

On video recordings, it was seen how the ship was on the side in the water before it sank.

According to locals, bad weather was held responsible for the accident on April 24th. "I remember the day when the boat sank; the weather was bad and the wind was strong," said Mohamed Shawky, a professional diver in the Red Sea, the Telegraph.

"The boat was new and bad weather alone does not explain the downfall. It may have been due to the mooring near the reef, and the captain could not handle it because of a sudden strong wind. If it ends up on a coral reef," it will be too late, "he said.

The captain of the ship gave an emergency call when the ship went down and saved all passengers nearby.

Major General Amr Hanafi, the governor of the Red Sea province, told Sky News Arabia that the boat had suffered a mechanical defect and that all tourists and crew members had been evacuated to another boat. No needed hospital aid, he said.