14 passengers and crew survived, but a Spanish couple are missing and now presumed dead. The two missing divers have been named as Israel Pérez and María Lourdes González, and come from a diving club in Xàbia, Valencia.
There has been an outcry in Spain, amid claims that the captain of the Coral Princess was the first to jump off the liveaboard, which sank in an area of deep water about four miles off Shark's Bay. Passengers have said that the boat had been listing to one side during the three days prior to the sinking, and that the skipper did nothing to improve the situation.
The decision to abandon the liveaboard was made quickly when guests awoke early in the morning of Thursday 19 November to find the lower compartments of the Coral Princess were swamped with water. According to the reports, all but María González made it to the open deck. Her husband, Israel Pérez realised she was missing and returned below to find her - neither was seen again.
The sinking has been classified as a boating rather than a diving accident, so it falls under the aegis of the Egyptian Maritime Safety Authority, which is carrying out its own investigation.
Hesham Gabr, chairman of Egypt's Chamber of Diving and Watersports (CDWS) has met with the parents of the missing couple and accompanied them to the place where the Coral Princess went down. He said the families are considering the possibility of salvage operations on the site to recover the bodies, but it lies in an area with a depth of 800m, so such an operation could prove problematic.
'CDWS is going to highlight to the maritime authority the need to reassess the condition of boats and the qualifications of skippers working in this area,' Hesham Gabr told DIVE. 'The captain is now in custody and the case is being investigated by the prosecutor.'
