The Sindbad disaster didn’t have to happen

For tourists aboard the Sindbad, the final moments of their planned jaunt below the waves will have been a hellish, adrenaline-fueled lunge for survival.

Six Russian tourists, including two children, died yesterday when the submarine abruptly capsized in seas one kilometre off the coast of the Egyptian city of Hurghada at around 10 a.m.

Sea water is said to have begun pouring in through open hatches as passengers boarded the boat at a floating platform on the edge of a Red Sea coral reef. It then appears that she plunged to the seabed at a depth of around 20m.

Those on board will have had to swim out of the hatches of the stricken submarine. Doing this at this depth would be hugely testing for highly trained sailors, let alone terrified families with small children. It will have been chaotic and disorientating, with the roar of the water amid frantic shouts and screams.