DiveSafe

Operator

Unknown

Vessel

Coral Princess

Date

18 November 2009

Location

approx. 12 nautical miles off Sharm el-Sheikh, near Ras Mohamed, Egypt

Fatalities

0 (2 missing)

According to Fundación NUESTROMAR, Libertad Digital and ThinkSpain, the 28-metre privately-owned liveaboard Coral Princess sank around 05:00 local time on 18 November 2009, approximately 12 nautical miles off Sharm el-Sheikh near Ras Mohamed, during a trip organised through the Dolphins dive centre of Javea, Alicante. Survivors told NUESTROMAR the vessel had been listing through the voyage and a water leak was suspected before she went down. Israel Pérez Muñoz and María Lourdes González Villarroya, a couple from Valencia, both 33, went missing, believed trapped in the lower cabins; the 14 remaining Spanish tourists and the Egyptian crew (reported variously as five and seven) were rescued. Survivors quoted by ThinkSpain disputed official accounts blaming rough seas, saying there were no waves and no wind, and accused the captain of abandoning ship first without warning or a distress call; Libertad Digital reported the cause as unknown and that crew fired flares and launched inflatable boats. A Chamber of Diving & Water Sports statement of 26 November 2009 gave the sinking date as 19 November and an assumed position about 4.5 nautical miles from the Naama Bay jetty in 1,100-1,300 metres of water, and confirmed the skipper's arrest; this record keeps 18 November, the date carried by the same-day Spanish reporting.