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SCMP

This story was published in the South China Morning Post on February 1, 2006
14 Hong Kong tour­ists die in Egypt crash
by Staff Reporters
Four­teen Hong Kong tour­ists died on Tuesday (January 31, 2006) when their speed­ing coach ran off a high­way in south­ern Egypt and rolled over.
The crash, one of the worst involving Hong Kong tour­ists, also left 30 injured, includ­ing the Egyp­tian driver.
The Jetour Hol­i­day group of 43 tour­ists, plus guides, were head­ing from the Red Sea resort of Hurghada towards the ancient city of Luxor when the crash happened about 7am (1pm Hong Kong time).
Police arres­ted the driver, Salah Mohammed Mah­mud, who was not ser­i­ously injured, and said he was likely to be charged with dan­ger­ous driv­ing.
One sur­vivor whose wife was killed said the acci­dent happened about 15 minutes into the jour­ney.
“At the time our guide was brief­ing us about the itin­er­ary,” Mr Wong, who did not give his full name, told Com­mer­cial Radio.
“I was sit­ting behind the driver and warned the guide when I saw the driver speed­ing. But it was too late, the vehicle rolled over when going past the bend.”
He said most of the pas­sen­gers were uncon­scious after the crash but he was thrown into a sand­pit and suffered only slight shoulder and facial injur­ies.
“But more than 10 people died, includ­ing my wife,” he said.

Six­teen men, 24 women and three chil­dren were on the 10-day tour, des­ig­nated KACX, that left Hong Kong on Fri­day (January 27, 2006).
The injured, some in ser­i­ous con­di­tion, were taken to the Hurghada Gen­eral Hos­pital.
“There are women and chil­dren among the vic­tims,” said Mohammed al-Sayyed, the head of Hurghada hos­pital. Jetour said some tour­ists had spinal injur­ies.
A spokes­man for the Tour­ist Police in Hurghada said the driver was exper­i­enced, “maybe the num­ber one in town”, but had been driv­ing too fast. There were no other vehicles involved and the road was in good con­di­tion.
A tour­ist police­man told the South China Morn­ing Post: “The driver was going too fast, couldn’t turn in time and drove straight off the road.”
The spokes­man said tour­ist police had cau­tioned all drivers in the area about the import­ance of driv­ing care­fully in the busy winter tour­ist sea­son fol­low­ing a sim­ilar acci­dent north of Cairo which left six Aus­trali­ans dead, also in January.
An invest­ig­a­tion into the acci­dent began within hours of Tuesday’s crash and the police had inter­viewed all the sur­viv­ors who were not ser­i­ously hurt.

The tour­ists had been stay­ing at the Hilton Hurghada Resort for the pre­vi­ous two days. A spokes­man for Hilton said the com­munity was in deep shock as news spread of the tragedy.
Jetour said inform­a­tion remained sketchy as the Hong Kong tour guide was crit­ic­ally injured in the acci­dent and the hos­pital there was too busy deal­ing with the injured. The agency has been try­ing to obtain more inform­a­tion about the crash and the vic­tims’ con­di­tions from sur­viv­ors.
Jetour oper­a­tions dir­ector Thomas Chau Wing-keung said the agency had been in touch with the rel­at­ives of most of the tour­ists and had made arrange­ments for more than 20 of them to go to Egypt on the first avail­able flight last night.
One of the rel­at­ives said at the air­port last night that he still did not know whether his elder sis­ter and her hus­band had sur­vived.
“We’re very wor­ried. We still don’t have any idea about their con­di­tion but there is noth­ing we can do,” Eric Chan Pui-kwan said.

Sec­ret­ary for Secur­ity Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong said a team of six gov­ern­ment staff – four immig­ra­tion officers, a Hos­pital Author­ity doc­tor and a nurse – had also left for Egypt and should reach Hurghada early Wednesday evening (February 1, 2006).
Chinese embassy staff in Cairo were on the way to the scene to help, he said. Xin­hua said ambas­sador Wu Sike was among the group.
“Once our med­ical team has arrived they’ll see what assist­ance they can provide,” Mr Lee said, pledging the gov­ern­ment’s fullest pos­sible assist­ance to the vic­tims.


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In 2006: Egypt bus tragedy leaves 14 Hong Kong tourists dead – from the SCMP archive

Emergency responders look for survivors inside a toppled bus carrying Hong Kong tourists on January 31, 2006. File photo: Handout

Anxious relatives head to their flight to Egypt to personally check on their loved ones figured in a tragic bus crash in southern Egypt on January 31, 2006. File photo: Robert Ng

Relatives of the Hong Kong tourists involved in the Egypt bus crash on their flight to Cairo on February 1, 2006. File photo: Robert Ng

Local authorities in southern Egypt conduct search operations on the ill-fated bus that killed 14 Hong Kong tourists. File photo: Handout

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The 2012 ferry crash killed 39 people. Photo: Handout

Sea Smooth catamaran struck Lamma IV, which was carrying 124 HK Electric employees and their relatives, on October 1, 2012. Photo: Nora Tam

Former Marine Department assistant director So Ping-chi is the highest-ranking official to be held criminally liable for the tragedy. Photo: Brian Wong

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The driver said he was waiting at a red light along Cox’s Road in Jordan when the drone suddenly struck the roof of his car. Photo: Handout

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A medium-sized truck and a car collided while both vehicles were heading west towards Kwai Chung. Photo: Handout

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News

Hong Kong

Society

On this day 20 years ago, a holiday bus ran off a highway in Egypt and rolled over, killing 14 Hong Kong tourists and hurting 30 others


On this day 20 years ago, a holiday bus ran off a highway in Egypt and rolled over, killing 14 Hong Kong tourists and hurting 30 others.


Hong Kong society

Egypt

Mohamed Al-Fayed

On This Day | In 2006: Egypt bus tragedy leaves 14 Hong Kong tourists dead – from the SCMP archive

On this day 20 years ago, a holiday bus ran off a highway in Egypt and rolled over, killing 14 Hong Kong tourists and hurting 30 others

14 Hong Kong tourists die in Egypt crash

.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}On This Day | In 2006: Egypt bus tragedy leaves 14 Hong Kong tourists dead – from the SCMP archive

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}On this day 20 years ago, a holiday bus ran off a highway in Egypt and rolled over, killing 14 Hong Kong tourists and hurting 30 others

14 Hong Kong tour­ists die in Egypt crash

On This Day | In 2006: Egypt bus tragedy leaves 14 Hong Kong tourists dead – from the SCMP archive

On this day 20 years ago, a holiday bus ran off a highway in Egypt and rolled over, killing 14 Hong Kong tourists and hurting 30 others

14 Hong Kong tourists die in Egypt crash