Belgian divers filmed how they survived underwater for 35 hours
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Belgian divers filmed how they survived underwater for 35 hours: 'Look, there are even cigarettes floating there'
With video In an air pocket of barely a few cubic meters in size, Belgian Christophe (37) and Lucianna (30) survived the ship disaster in Egypt. They recorded this themselves in an unlikely video. In it they show the food they were able to gather. The waves crash against their small room and pieces of furniture float by.
“Things wash up here all the time. Look, there! There are even cigarettes floating in the water," one of them laughs. "Film that." Anyone who doesn't know any better would think that Christophe (37) and Lucianna (30) are making a holiday film. But nothing could be further from the truth: the two are stuck, meters below the sea surface, in the belly of the capsized tourist boat Sea Story.
Miraculously, they ended up in an air pocket, a place in the boat where there is no water. Their phone still works and they make one video. As if they wanted to record what they experienced, in case they didn't survive. Christophe sits carelessly with his bare feet on the edge of their 'safe room'. The water gushes against it.
“We got some supplies together.” Meanwhile, Christophe films a pile of bags of chips and several bottles of water. He tells it almost jokingly. With his bare feet just not in the water. Perhaps he does not yet realize that he will have to sit in that small space for a total of 35 hours. Both he and his girlfriend Lucanna are more than experienced divers. Maybe that explains why they don't immediately sound scared. Because the circumstances are frightening.
The water almost screams. Every wave seems to want to enter their small room. A cupboard drawer floats past. It is the silent witness of what just happened: a shipping disaster on the high seas. The ship's furniture even finds its way out. Or back inside, depending on how you look at it. The video lasts just under a minute in total.
Everything started three days before, last Sunday. Christophe and Lucanna then board the Sea Story together. They worked as diving instructors in Cyprus for a season, but now it's their turn to play tourists. The Sea Story is a large tourist boat that sails to the hotspots for diving enthusiasts in the Red Sea.
But on Monday morning around 5:30 am the ship was surprised by extremely high waves. So much so that the boat capsizes and begins to sink very quickly. Christophe and Lucanna are still sleeping. When they wake up, they see that the boat is tilted in the water. Various items therefore block the door of their cabin. When they move it and open the door, the water rushes in very quickly.
Their life jackets save their lives. Because they ensure that they are sucked into that small room one way or another. They also say this themselves in the video they made from their hiding place. Again: as if they want to immortalize how everything went. Just in case. “The boat turned in the middle of the night. There was water everywhere. We have arrived here suddenly,” it sounds. Ultimately, the couple can be saved after 35 hours. They are fine and will soon be repatriated back to Belgium.