A Submarine Full of Tourists Is Missing

Six people have been reported dead.

Deep Dive

Yet another submarine has gone missing — though this time, it wasn't headed to visit the wreck of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

This time, a vessel with 45 Russian tourists on board sank off the coast of a tourist resort in Hurghada, Egypt, in the Red Sea. As the BBC reports, at least six of the passengers are feared dead, with nine injured and 29 rescued.

According to a Russian official in the area, at least five Russians were killed, two of whom were children. Two municipal officials told the Associated Press that six people had died.

The submersible was reportedly organized by underwater tourism company Sindbad Submarines, which has been operating in the area for years. Its vessels can dive to maximum depths of around 82 feet, allowing tourists to "experience the beauty of the Red Sea’s underwater world without getting wet," per the company's website, which appears to be down following the tragedy.

To put that number into perspective, that's orders of magnitude shallower than the approximately 12,500 feet at which the domed OceanGate submersible imploded in 2023.

Plenty of questions remain, and an immediate cause for the disaster has yet to be identified. It's nonetheless a terrifying incident, highlighting the dangers of embarking on these kinds of trips — and, possibly, lax safety measures that could've prevented it.

Sinking Ships

There have been similar incidents in recent months. In November, 44 people on board a tourist yacht sank near a different Egyptian resort called Marsa Allam. Eleven people were presumed dead, per the BBC.

And last month, a different tourist diving boat capsized in rough weather near Hurghada with six people on board.

The latest disaster, which happened during light winds and calm waters, has raised concerns over safety standards in Egypt regarding seafaring vessels.

The country is facing a "crisis on at the moment, in terms of safety on some of these tourist vessels," Southampton University oceanographer Simon Boxall told the BBC.

More on submersibles: The Doomed Sub’s Final Messages Before Imploding Are Pretty Grim