35 Hours in a Sinking Boat: Woman Shares Harrowing Story of Survival and Facing Death!

She had survived the disastrous catastrophe where Lucianna Galetta was trapped in an air pocket for thirty-five hours after her ship capsized in November 2024 off the Red Sea coast of Egypt.

This terrible six-day dive trip ended up going horribly wrong on the first night when the ship sank. Many of the forty-six humans onboard—31 worldwide guests, three diving teachers, and 12 Egyptian crew contributors—many faced inconceivable challenges to continue to exist.

The Incident

Egyptian officers attributed the sinking to a massive wave, but Dr. Simon Boxall, an oceanographer at the College of Southampton, disputed the claim. Reading the weather, he said, “There’s no manner a 4 m (13 ft) wave should have occurred in that place at that time.”

Survivors speculated that unstable fixtures on the pinnacle deck would possibly have shifted, contributing to the vessel’s instability as water rushed in.

Lucianna, unable to reach the pinnacle deck, located herself trapped along with her accomplice, Christophe Lemmens, in an air pocket within the boat’s engine room.

Trapped and Helpless

“There was already water in the hall, so it became not possible to get out,” Lucianna told BBC News. “We panicked and didn’t recognise the boat turned the other way up.”

The couple leaped into the rising water and nearly drowned before surfacing in the air pocket. They were later joined through diving trainer Youssef al-Faramawy, and the three clung to hope in utter isolation.

“I used to be ready to die, to be sincere,” Lucianna confessed.

Footage captured by Lucianna shows property floating inside the water, blocking off potential exits.

An Extended, Agonizing Wait

While survivors who escaped to the surface waited hours for rescue, those within the air pocket persisted an excruciating 35-hour ordeal. Despite listening to a helicopter after 8 hours, Lucianna and her companions waited 27 more hours with no contact from outside.

“We had no communication, no idea what was going on. I questioned how I’d favour to die,” she recalled.

Tragic Losses and Striking Rescue

Rescuers eventually placed Lucianna, Christophe, and Youssef with the assistance of a neighbourhood diving trainer. But the tragedy claimed as much as eleven lives, with a few passengers nevertheless lacking.

“It’s very bizarre to be alive in comparison to the others,” Lucianna admitted. “”I need their families to grieve.”

A Heavy Thought

Emotional scars still abide within survivors like Lucianna. “We are indeed blessed, but so many didn’t come back.”

It brings into sharp relief the perils of deep-sea travel, not just as an individual incident but as part of an unfortunate history of disasters that brings into focus the need for stricter safety measures to prevent similar tragedies in the future.