Survivors of a diving boat in the Red Sea say they were pressured to sign documents

Survivors of a deadly dive boat sinking in the Red Sea say they were pressured to sign official witness statements in Arabic – which they could not understand and were translated from English by a boat company employee.

They say the man also tried to get them to sign waivers stating that they were not accusing anyone of “criminal offenses.”

The 11 survivors who spoke to the BBC also accused Egyptian authorities of trying to cover up what happened, saying investigators were intent on pinning the blame on a huge wave.

The Sea Story ship was carrying 46 people when it sank in the early hours of November 25 last year. Four bodies were recovered and seven people are still missing, including two British divers.

Neither the Egyptian government nor the boat operators – Dive Pro Liveaboard, based in Hurghada – responded to our questions.

Tuesday, The BBC revealed multiple accusations from survivors due to safety failures on board. A prominent oceanographer, who analyzed the weather data, said it was implausible that a huge wave had hit the ship.

Within hours of arriving on shore, survivors say they were subjected to what one described as “interrogation,” some on their hospital beds, by people they were told were judges.

Other survivors said those who did not require hospital treatment were interviewed at a nearby resort, who reported the same feelings of pressure.

“We were told we couldn't leave the room until they had issued everyone's statements,” says Sarah Martin, an NHS doctor from Lancashire.

The judges were part of an Egyptian investigation into the cause of the sinking, although survivors say it is not clear specifically who is leading the investigation.

Survivors say that having their initial statements translated into Arabic by an employee of the company that owns Sea Story amounted to a clear conflict of interest.

Spanish diver Hesora Gonzalez said the man did not initially introduce himself as an employee. “He just said, 'You have to tell me what happened, and then you have to sign this paper.'

It wasn't until later, several people we spoke to say, that the man told them he worked for Dive Pro Liveaboard.

Survivors say that after the man translated their statements, they were handed over to investigators – which shocked Lisa Wolfe. “An ordinary judge cannot take a translation from someone who is clearly fully involved in the process.”

One survivor, a Norwegian police investigator, said she had “no idea” what the four pages in Arabic that were handed to her actually said. “They could have written anything. I don't know what I signed,” Froides Adamson explained. Under her signature, she says she wrote that she was unable to read the documents.

“We were in shock and just wanted to go home,” Hisora ​​said.

Representatives of the boat operator, Dive Pro Liveaboard, also repeatedly tried to get people to sign waivers — survivors say — that would have made them agree to the statement: “I am not accusing anyone of any criminal wrongdoing.”

Justin Hodges, an American diver who was also rescued, told us that a “liability release document,” written in English, was handed to him while he was testifying.

He said he thought the person he was talking to was an “official,” but at that point he learned he worked for the company.

“He slipped up with the authorities,” Justin says. “The fact that he tried to talk us out of liability at that moment was crazy to me.”

At least some of the people we spoke to did not sign the document.

Everyone we spoke to said they were not allowed to keep copies of their statements, but the BBC was told that some people were able to translate documents with their phones. Many of these told us that the essential and damaging details they conveyed orally had been left out of the papers.

“Everything about the condition of the lifeboats and the safety issues on the boat have disappeared,” says Lisa.

Sarah and Hisora ​​reported the same experience. “They just put what they want,” Hisora ​​says.

Survivors also say authorities seemed determined to blame the tragedy on a huge wave from the start.

This is despite many of those rescued saying the waves were not too big to prevent them from swimming. A leading oceanographer told the BBC that contemporary meteorological data from the nearest airport strongly supported the survivors' memories.

Hesora asked if she could eventually see a copy of the investigators' final report, but said she was told there was no need to. “(It's like) they already knew it was a wave,” she says.

When she asked again, Hisora ​​said she was told that “the only one responsible for this is the sea.” She believes that the authorities had already made their decision before the investigation began.

Hisora's concerns are shared by Sarah, who says the judges were also “very careful” that survivors not blame anyone for the accident.

Many survivors say they were told that if they wanted to hold anyone responsible, they had to name a single, specific crime they were accused of committing.

“Just because I couldn't name the person and the crime, doesn't mean someone isn't responsible,” Sarah says.

Justin says Dive Pro Liveaboard's last attempt to convince survivors to sign waivers occurred when one group tried to leave for Cairo.

After they lost their passports at sea, he said a company representative told the group that the documents provided to them were authorization papers to cross checkpoints.

“But then I got to the bottom and the last sentence is the same release question” — a repetition of the sentence he says he was asked to sign when he gave his statement as a witness.

Justin says he went to alert others, and when he returned to the man he believed was trying to mislead him, the papers “magically disappeared” and were replaced with more official-looking documents.

“My blood was boiling,” he says.

The BBC did not see the waiver documents or copies of them.

Family and friends of missing Britons Jenny Cawson and Tariq Senada from Devon say they constantly receive partial and inaccurate news from the Egyptian government.

For example, after the disaster, they said they were told that the boat had not been found – even though on television they saw survivors from the wreckage being brought to shore. They demand an investigation be opened.

“The Egyptian authorities seem to be doing their best to hide this,” says a friend, Andy Williamson. “They want to protect their tourism industry.”

In March, a fire on another Dive Pro Liveaboard boat – the Sea Legend – killed a German tourist.

Last year, Maritime Survey International, an independent consultancy, released a report on dive boat safety in the Red Sea. It inspected eight vessels, although not including any operated by Dive Pro Liveaboard, and found none had a “planned maintenance system, safety management system or stability books,” an important document for avoiding capsizing.

It also found that design standards were “poor with all ships lacking bulkheads, doors and watertight hatches.”

It concluded that no single vessel is safe and that Egypt's diving boat industry “renders its trade largely unregulated.”