Six dead and 39 rescued after tourist submarine sinks in Red Sea, says local governor

bbc ^ | 03/27/2025

[BenLurkin]

It's still not known what caused the Sindbad submarine to sink. One report, from the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, suggested the vessel may have hit a reef at a depth of around 20 metres.

A woman now tells Russian outlet Ren TV, in a phone interview, that water flowed into hatches as passengers boarded the submarine.

Ekaterina says as they took their reserved seats, water started "pouring in" as two hatches were open.

She says it was as if the submarine had fallen off "whatever it was holding on to". Earlier, we learned that tourists are taken out to the submarine, which is docked at a floating platform.

Some managed to swim out and some didn't, she says. Her daughter and mother are in hospital, she adds.

[verum ago]

Wait, now they’re saying it sank during boarding?

Oh man, someone really messed up bad.

[I-ambush]

It was hot, so they used the screen doors.

[citizen]

Okay, I’ll do it “Aren’t submarines supposed to sink?”

[rfreedom4u]

“It’s still not known what caused the Sindbad submarine to sink.”

“water flowed into hatches”

Hello? That’s why it sunk.

[BenLurkin]

https://www.lerctr.org/~transit/healy/algoof.wav

[citizen]

During boarding? Sounds like criminal negligence in some way. Tragic.

[nuke_road_warrior]

It's still not known what caused the Sindbad submarine to sink.

It's a Russian submarine being operated by an Egyptian crew. That may be a clue.

[Red6]

https://www.sindbadsubmarines.com/

Sounds like someone screwed up.

[Billthedrill]

...all excursions and ticket sales for the tours have been suspended...

Yeah, that's likely to hurt business a little. I'm going to tell my travel agent to erase "Russian submarine" off my itinerary...

[TexasGator]

Nope

[TexasGator]

1Sank

[sjmjax]

Don’t know if this one is of the same design.

I’ve been on similar tourist subs in several different countries.
In their normal configuration, they are slightly buoyant. They need to use thrusters continuously to stay submerged. In the event of power failure, it automatically returns to the surface.

They also have a substantial jettisonable ballast as well in the event of flooding.

I’ve seen two articles on this accident from separate sources. Still not clear what actually happened.

[BenLurkin]

One ping, only.

[lee martell]

A “Tourist Submarine”?

[BenLurkin]

Captained by Bill Burr

[xp38]

I think the only one I’ve been on was at Disneyland. A long time ago btw.

[zeestephen]

Attacked by the Radical (and fun hating) Houthis?

[Vaduz]

Tourist submarine sinks

Dang just when you find out they make underwater drones with cameras too.

[dfwgator]