A woman who survived 35 hours trapped in an air pocket inside a sinking ship has shared her harrowing experience.
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“I was ready to die, to be honest,” Lucianna Galetta recently admitted to the BBC.
Galetta was one of 46 people aboard the Sea Story diving boat, which departed from Egypt’s Red Sea coast in November 2024 for a six-day trip with multiple dives.
The boat carried 31 international guests, three diving instructors, and 12 Egyptian crew members, per the BBC.
However, on the very first night of the trip, passengers were abruptly awakened as the vessel unexpectedly capsized in the middle of the night.
Egyptian authorities attributed the incident to a massive wave striking the boat. However, Dr. Simon Boxall, a prominent oceanographer from the University of Southampton, questioned this explanation after analyzing the weather conditions.
“[There’s] no way a 4m (13ft) wave could have occurred in that region at that time” Boxall insisted to the BBC.
Survivors of the sinking have suggested that shifting furniture on the ship’s top deck during the waves may have contributed to the vessel’s instability.
Regardless of the origins of the disaster, water rushed through the ship.
Galetta couldn’t reach the top deck to escape as the boat sank.
“There was already water in the corridor so it was impossible to go out,” she recalled to BBC News. “We tried, I think we panicked, and we didn’t really realize that the boat was upside down.”
Galetta and her partner, Christophe Lemmens, found themselves trapped in an air pocket within the boat’s engine room, the only part left above water as the vessel sank.
“We jumped and almost drowned, and then we appeared in this air pocket,” she added.
The Survivor of the Sinking Ship Recalls ‘Wondering How I Would Prefer to Die
Soon, one of the dive instructors, Youssef al-Faramawy, joined the couple in the air pocket. With no other options, the three could only sit together and wait, clinging to the hope that help would arrive.
The trio accepted that death may soon come. “I was ready to die,” Galetta told the outlet.
Up to 11 people from the Sea Story either died or are still missing after the ship sank.
“It’s very weird to be alive compared to the others. I was more ready to die than to be alive and living like this now,” Galetta admitted.
Survivors reported the Sea Story sank around 2-3 am, but authorities didn’t receive a distress signal until 5:30 am. Rescuers arrived eight hours after the capsizing, while Galetta and the others trapped in an air pocket remained unaware of the rescue efforts.
“We heard this helicopter after eight hours, at this point we were very happy… but then after we needed to wait 27 hours more. We had had no communication with the outside, nothing. No one tried to see if there was someone alive in there,” Galetta explained.
She debated whether to attempt escaping on her own or remain trapped in the air pocket, hoping for rescue.
“I was just wondering how I would prefer to die,” she told the outlet.
A local diving instructor ultimately managed to locate the three survivors and guide them to safety. While Galetta feels beyond thankful to be alive, her thoughts remain with those who weren’t so lucky.
“We are lucky to be alive but there are so many people who didn’t come back from this, and I want their families to be able to grieve,” Galetta added.