Seven Seas liveaboard fire
THE RED SEA HAS BEEN HIT BY THE loss of another dive liveaboard, with Emperor Diver’ s popular Seven Seas destroyed by fire.
No crew or passengers were injured in the fire but the vessel could not be saved.
The incident occurred while the Emperor Seven Seas liveaboard was moored in Port Ghalib, with the crew and guests evacuated safely, according to a statement from Emperor Divers:
“ In the early hours of Thursday, March 13th a fire broke out that could unfortunately not be contained. Emperor Divers are very grateful to our dedicated and professional
crew who, along with the guests onboard, executed emergency procedures which ensured everyone was evacuated from the vessel unharmed.”
Emperor Divers is one of the most well-respected dive operators in Egypt. Seven Seas was the latest addition to their Red Sea liveaboard fleet, joining Emperor Elite, Emperor Superior and Emperor Asmaa in 2023.
The loss of the Seven Seas comes five months after the capsizing of the Sea Story near the port of Marsa Alam in November with the loss of four people, while seven people are still missing, including two UK nationals. The past five years have seen 16 incidents involving dive liveaboards in the Red Sea.
BSAC recently released guidance on liveaboard safety for divers – bsac. com / liveaboardsafety
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How we learn from incidents
FOLLOWING THE CALL-OUT FOR volunteers at last October’ s BSAC Diving Conference, BSAC has announced a new project aimed at improving diving incident data quality and input, incident data analysis and dive industry safety communications.
This project aims to improve BSAC’ s current data collation and analysis processes and contribute to the development of a more effective incident reporting process.
The newly appointed project group consists of three sub-groups of expert volunteers who will work together to identify challenges in the current system and propose improvements. The subgroups will be looking at three core areas of our incident reporting – data, analysis and communication output.
BSAC’ s Head of Diving and Training, Sophie Heptonstall said she was delighted by the response to work on this project and the expertise of the volunteers.
“ Our goal is to improve our incident reporting process that makes it simple to submit data and improve BSAC’ s ability, as the National Governing body for diving and snorkelling, to generate insightful reports to further improve safety in our sports,” she added.
The three sub-groups have now started their initial review, and BSAC will provide members with an update once full details become available.
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