Entry Point: North East corner via two RIBs, 10 meters from reef.
Conditions: South east current running at about 2.5 knots.
15/20 meters underwater visibility.
1 meter sea swell, maybe reaching 1.5 meters at times.
Strong northerly to north east wind force 4 to 5, i.e. blowing from the north to the south.
A clear, sunny day.

Dive Brief/Plan:
Liveaboard moored on the Southern point of Little Brother on the leeward side of the island. First RIB containing 6 divers plus dive guide, second RIB containing 6 divers to be dropped into the water after dive guide has assessed conditions. First RIB returns to the boat in order to pick up 9 further divers and drop them at the same entry point. Second RIB to remain in the area of the planned dive route.

Divers to keep reef in sight at all times, and if divers wished to look for pelagics during the early part of the dive then swim a little away from the reef looking into the blue while also keeping one eye on the reef.

Divers to be aware that the reef at the southern end of Little Brother did not run parallel with the current, i.e. the force of the current would take divers away from reef.
Divers to drift with the current down the east side of the reef until reaching the south end and then follow the reef around the corner and end the dive exploring the south/south west side of the island.

Maximum dive time was 60 minutes, and divers had the choice to either return to the boat or surface on the south side of the island and get picked up by the RIBs.

It was not everyone’s intention to dive as one big guided group but for buddy pairs to make their own choices while on the dive.

What actually happened.

At about 7:10am 2 RIBs took 13 people to the entry point. I was in the second RIB where one person got a nose bleed, possibly due to a knock when the boat was hit by a particularly large wave. Once we got to the entry point the dive guide was on the surface waiting for the second RIB as the 6 divers from the first RIB had already descended. The person with the nose bleed elected not to dive. So the remaining 5 divers entered the water and descended.

The second RIB remained above the divers while the first RIB returned to the boat to pick up a third group of 9 divers. Once the first RIB returned with the 3rd group of divers, the second RIB, with the person who had the nose bleed, then returned to the boat to drop them off.

Once the nose bleed victim had been returned to the boat, the second RIB went back out to sea to supervise the south end of the island.

Once in the water we had visual contact with the reef, around 10 meters away. At this point buddy pairs were various distances from the reef ranging from 10-20 meters and at various depths ranging from 15-30 meters.

We all proceeded to drift with the current for a few minutes before one of the group rapped on their tank and pointed out into the blue. Everyone’s attention was drawn out into the blue in an attempt to see what was being pointed at. From where I was nothing could be clearly seen.

I think this was the experience of most divers, as the impression I got was that the majority of the divers finned a few meters further out into the blue to try and get a better look. I then spotted what I thought was a manta but struggled to clearly identify the sighting.

This diverted everyone’s attention for a critical 1-2 minutes. It must have been during this period that we lost contact with the reef as when I looked back to get a reference the reef was out of sight. I then checked the wave action/current and sun position to try and get an idea of the correct position of the reef, and then started to ascend to the surface from 25+ meters in the general direction I thought the reef was in.

This was after 17 minutes of dive time. The dive guide had begun his ascent a little before me. By the time I reached the surface the dive guide had already taken a visual look, deployed a DSMB and had redescended to do a safety stop.

I reached the surface after 20 minutes of dive time to see that we were 200-300 meters south east of Little Brother and our boat. I then redescended to do a safety stop and to get our group of four into a closer proximity to the dive guide and for them to start a safety stop. Once I had done a safety stop I surfaced next to the dive guide and we signaled to the other divers to ascend. By the time all divers were on the surface 30-33 minutes of time had passed since the start of the dive.

At this point the group was together on the surface. We were now 600-1000 meters south of Little Brother and the dive boat. All SMB’s and sausages were deployed, 8 in total. With a 1.5 meter swell and the reflection of an early morning rising sun over our heads, there was little to no chance of either the RIBs or the deck watch on the boat spotting us.

As a group we had various discussions about the best course of action. These included the feasibility of trying to either swim back towards the boat or trying to maintain our position from the boat, both above and below the water. We decided we would have wasted a lot of energy swimming against the current and would have to swim for at least an hour. We felt attempting any of these options was too risky and could have led to splitting the group. In addition, the alarm would not have been raised for at least another 30-45 minutes and a wider search would not have reached us for at least an hour if we were lucky. We therefore decided to stay together and go with the current and wind.

Our group of 12, (5 British, 5 Portuguese, 2 Belgians), was drifting in a southerly direction, being affected by the south/south east current and the north/north west wind.
We very quickly lost sight of even the lighthouse on Big Brother.
The stark reality of our situation hit everyone. We floated as a loose group in an area of approximately 20x20 meters, but always in visual contact with one another and in agreement that we would stick together. Every now and again as we became more detached we would regroup.

We each dropped our weights at various points during the early stage of the drift but kept hold of the actual belts.

At around 9.30 a.m, about 3 hours later, we spotted one of the RIBs searching for us 300m-500m to our north east and it was searching in a south easterly direction. The RIB then changed direction and moved off in a north east direction, away from us.

For the next 5 hours we continued to drift as individuals in a loose group, some of us coming together and holding onto each other for short periods of times. The majority of time we drifted in silence with the odd burst of conversation. It was strange how quickly time passed. Realizing the situation we were in, we all went into survival mode, by which I mean a semi-conscious mental shut down takes place where you are aware of what is going on around of you but you spend long periods of time not thinking about anything.

All this time there were large (1-1.5m) rolling waves. Three of the group did start to vomit because of sea sickness which was distressing for all of us as we were all aware of the value of the liquid being lost by those that where being ill.

Between 2 and 3 p.m the group was very subdued. About 8 of the group came together and held on to one another whilst resting on the sausages/SMBs which we had laid flat on the water. Some of us actually dozed – just for a few minutes. We were all suffering from the sun and the start of dehydration and from friction sores caused by our suits rubbing – especially around our necks.

Between 3 and 4 p.m we had a huge amount of excitement. First of all we spotted 2 dive boats heading south about 2-3 km to our east. They looked like the boats that had been moored next to us on Little Brother. This gave us great excitement as it confirmed that other boats were out searching and therefore there was some kind of co-coordinated rescue effort. As the dive boats came into sight so did a cargo ship which was heading south towards us.

This came between the dive boats and us. Shortly after this we spotted a plane flying low over the sea in what looked like a search pattern.
The frustration was that everything was happening to our east and this led some of us to believe we were outside the search zone. So close and yet so far. Some tried to convince others in the group to swim east towards the area of the search zone. This was the only real point of division between the group as we could not agree on what to do. Some wanted to stay put, save energy and wait for the search corridor to be expanded. Others felt that the group needed to also help those searching by swimming slowly towards the current search corridor. This is the point at which the group did split. At least 4 of the group swam east, about 300-400 meters from the rest of the group in an attempt to get the attention of the cargo ship. The group of 4 probably got to within one kilometer of the cargo ship as it went past.

The 2 dive boats went about 4 km south of the group before turning around and heading north again. Still to the east of the 2 groups.

The group of 4 that had swum east then turned and swam back to the main group. By now the swell had reduced to under a meter so there was only a very small chance of the group of 4 losing contact with the main group.
As we got together as one group the search plane, which was flying towards the east about 2 km south of us, turned north and headed straight towards us. SMBs, arms and colourful fins all went up in the air with the obvious delight that there was no way the plane could miss us as it flew only 50-200metres west of the group, heading straight for us for several minutes. We were all elated, we all thought rescue was imminent. We watched and continued waving and shouting, but when the plane carried on straight over our heads and gave no indication of spotting us, (ie dipping its wings, circling back, dropping a survival package or the diversion of the 2 dive boats that were disappearing off to the north back towards us), we knew the plane had not seen us. This awful realization led to bitter disappointment and our morale hit a low. We were all quiet and drifted alone in silence with our own thoughts. After some time, we realized that we had spread out over some distance during this period and regrouped again.

Later reports did state that the plane had spotted divers in the water, but this should not be linked with this plane going over the top of us. The co-ordinates where the plane thought they had seen people was north west of the Brothers. This miss identification by the plane meant that our dive boat had to respond (even though they could not believe we would be in that location as currents and winds were in the opposite direction). The boat was then diverted from its search in our area and had to travel 2-3 hours north to find nothing more than buoys/debris floating in the water. This was a terrible moment for those on board. They too had their highs and lows during the search, just as those of us in the water did.

I also see from a write up provided by MV Thunderbird that they were given coordinates from a helicopter who reportedly sighted us. At no time did we see a helicopter so, whatever the helicopter did spot, it could not have been us.

After 2 hours of excitement and drama we then came together and started planning for the night. At least 3 of the group had suffered from the cold during the day and going into the evening 2 of the group were extremely cold and were starting to get close to hypothermia. Around 6 p.m we tied ourselves together using the weight belts and the cord from the DSMB. We numbered ourselves from 1 to 12 so we could have a regular role call to ensure no one was falling asleep.

From then until sunset (approx 7.00 p.m), we tried to work out a few brain games and chatted.

This is where the torches came into their own. One of the torches had the power of a small lighthouse and for another 15 minutes we tried signaling the two boats from this torch and one other at either end of the line of 12 divers. It was later reported that when the boats first spotted us they though that we were a fishing boat because of the distance between the two lights! However they could not see anything on the radar or get any response on their radio. As we sat in the water watching the distant lights we argued more in those minutes than we had all day: Point the torch this way, no point it that way, no up in the sky, no at the sausages, turn one off, save the battery on one torch. We tried not to get too excited that we were going to get rescued – the boats were so far away and we’d been so close before – but we couldn’t help it. One thing is for sure, at the worst point we thought we saw the boats turn and go away from us as the two lights got closer together and less bright. It was agonizing. Then someone shouted they could see the red and green, port and starboard lights. They also explained that you could only see these lights if a boat was on a direct course towards you as there was only a small angle on the light to project the beams forward.
What a feeling that bought to our hearts! It still took over 30 minutes for the boats to reach us. They must have been 10-14 km away when they first spotted us. How lucky was that? When the boat turned its light on and off, in response to us doing the same with our torches, we knew for certain they had seen us and were coming. Finally the RIBs picked us up out of the water and we were taken back to Thunderbird where we received an incredible welcome from the crew and guests.
No one was looking forward to spending the night in the water trying to stay awake and avoiding the effects of hypothermia.

We were all very worried about the two in the group that had suffered badly with the cold. With the sun burn and the friction rubs from the wet suits which we were all suffering from, the prospect of another day at sea also did not seem to bring us much hope of a respite. Especially as we guessed that the sea would be rough again the following morning due to the wind conditions.
We were eventually found 42km south west of the Brothers at about 8.30 p.m, 13.5 hours since we entered the water. We were delighted to rejoin MV Oyster at about 10.30 p.m.

We have requested that if anyone knows our exact location from Thunderbird’s GPS we would really appreciate being told what it was. I for one want to put a couple of pins into a map on my wall. Our guess is that during the day as the sea calmed so the current must have shifted a little more south and the wind taken us a little more west than expected.

We would all like to express our deep gratitude to those who took part in the search, both seen and unseen, on land and sea. A huge effort was made by all those involved and your efforts are extremely appreciated by us all. We owe you our lives.
The post incident investigation was taken extremely seriously by the Red Sea Association and the Governor of the Red Sea who personally chaired the review after returning early from his holiday to supervise the rescue. This took place on our return to Hurghada on 12 August. It was clear that the search and subsequent rescue mission was given the highest priority by the Egyptian authorities. Various suggestions where made during the session on how safety and procedures could be further improved.

We would like to thank the crew and guests of the Thunderbird, Royal Emperor and the Blue Pearl who we understand where the three boats that arrived together to pick us up. Apologies if we have got this slightly wrong but in all the excitement we are not 100% sure on our facts on the other two boats in attendance.

We would also like to sincerely thank the crew and dive guides of the Oyster.

We believe the incident was caused by a number of combined factors and every member of the Oyster crew made every effort to ensure that they carried out their duty of care to the full, both before and after the incident. It was just a set of unfortunate circumstance that led to a one off incident.

We hope that our insistence that we should continue diving from the Oyster demonstrated our faith and trust in both the crew and dive guides’ competence. We hope this action alone speaks louder than any words to all those involved with The Oyster.
We also owe the crew and dive guides a big thank you for helping to get us all gently back into the water and enjoying our diving again.