Featured Image Credit: BBC News
Topics: Egypt, Life, World News
Emily Brown
A woman who spent 35 hours trapped in an air pocket of a sunken boat has opened up about how she accepted her life was going to end.
Lucianna Galetta was one of 46 people on board the Sea Story diving boat when it set off from Egypt's Red Sea coast in November 2024, ready for a six-day trip featuring multiple dives.
Those on board consisted of 31 international guests, three diving instructors and 12 Egyptian crew members, but on the first day of the trip, passengers were woken in the middle of the night as the boat suddenly capsized.
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Egyptian officials have said the incident was caused by a huge wave that struck the boat, though Dr Simon Boxall, a leading oceanographer from the University of Southampton, cast doubt on that theory when he analyzed the weather and claimed there was 'no way a 4m (13ft) wave could have occurred in that region, at that time', BBC News reports.
Survivors of the sinking have suggested that furniture on the top deck of the boat may have shifted in the waves, potentially causing the vessel to become unstable.
Whatever the cause, there was no escaping the fact that water was rushing in on board.
Lucianna, who was one of the survivors of the ordeal, wasn't able to make it to the top deck like some of her fellow passengers who jumped from the boat as it started to sink.
"There was already water in the corridor so it was impossible to go out," she recalled in an interview with BBC News. "We tried, I think we panicked, and we didn't really realize that the boat was upside down."
As they struggled to get out, Lucianna and her partner, Christophe Lemmens, ended up in an air pocket in the boat's engine room, which was left sticking out of the water as the boat sank.
She continued: "We jumped and almost drowned, and then we appeared in this air pocket."
Lucianna has shared footage she managed to capture while on board, showing belongings floating around in the rising water and blocking the exit she and Christophe might have hoped to use to escape.
Before long, the couple were joined by one of the dive instructors, Youssef al-Faramawy, in the air pocket, and the three had no choice but to sit and wait, hoping for help to arrive.
In her interview, Lucianna admitted: "I was ready to die to be honest."
Sadly, up to 11 people who were on the Sea Story when it sank died, or are still missing.
"It's very weird to be alive compared to the others. I was more ready to die than to be alive and living like this now," Lucianna said.
Survivors of the sinking told BBC News the Sea Story sank between 2am-3am, but a distress signal was not received by local authorities until about 5:30am.
Rescuers arrived about eight hours after the boat first capsized, but from their position in the air pocket, Lucianna and her companions had no idea what was going on.
"We heard this helicopter after eight hours, at this point we were very happy... but then after we needed to wait 27 hours more. We had had no communication with the outside, nothing. No one tried to see if there was someone alive in there," Lucianna recalled.
"I was just wondering how I would prefer to die," she said, weighing up her options of attempting to get out herself, or potentially be left in the air pocket.
Eventually, a local diving instructor was able to locate the three survivors and lead them to safety.
"We are lucky to be alive but there are so many people who didn't come back from this, and I want their families to be able to grieve," Lucianna added.
UNILAD previously reached out to Dive Pro Liveaboard for comment, but has not received a response.