# Russian authorities dispute collision theory after Hurghada submarine sinking
Russian authorities and survivors say the tourist submarine that sank off Hurghada may have started taking on water while passengers were still boarding, challenging an earlier account that blamed a collision with a coral reef.
The incident killed six Russians and injured nine other people, according to the report in the packet. It involved the Sindbad 2 sightseeing submarine, which was carrying tourists in Egypt's Red Sea off the resort city of Hurghada.
The key dispute is over how the disaster began. Officials in Hurghada had told The National on Thursday that preliminary investigations pointed to a collision with a coral reef that depressurised the vessel cabin and let water in. But Russian survivors, and Russia's consul general in the city, described a different sequence: the submarine allegedly began to sink while passengers were still boarding and before hatches were closed.
One survivor said she and her children had not yet boarded when the vessel started submerging. She described an Egyptian worker shouting for people to stop boarding and pushing tourists back onto the pontoon as the craft sank. Her account is consistent with the claim that the vessel was not fully sealed at the time.
The source says that 45 passengers were on board and that most were rescued. It also says injured tourists, many of them children, were seen being brought to the beach unconscious. Those details reinforce the seriousness of the incident even though the exact cause remains contested.
The governor of Red Sea province, Amr Hanafi, visited the injured on Friday and promised an investigation but did not say what Egyptian authorities believed had caused the sinking. That caution matters because it leaves the official explanation open while competing accounts circulate.
The timing also matters. The source says the incident happened on Thursday morning off Hurghada, and that Russian survivors later gave testimony to Tass suggesting human error or a technical malfunction. That is a different theory from collision with the reef, and it could affect both liability and regulation if confirmed.
The report does not identify the company operating the submarine beyond saying it was run by Sindbad Submarines in the city. It also does not say whether any formal salvage or marine investigation has been completed.
For now, the safest conclusion is that the cause has not been settled. What is known is that six Russians died, nine others were injured, and the company, local authorities and survivors are offering conflicting accounts of how the vessel sank. In a tourist industry built on controlled underwater excursions, that unresolved question is the central one.
