Barkby shares up 150% as AIM firm weighs sale of sleep sciences business

• Barkby said it was ‘exploring options to maximise shareholder value’ from CSS
• CSS uses neuroscience to manufacture products for improving natural sleep

By Harry Wise

Updated: 10:57 EDT, 11 September 2023

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• Tired parents typically miss out on four and a half hours of sleep each night 

By Katherine Lawton

Updated: 20:08 EDT, 4 September 2023

• Catching up on sleep at the weekend could make you feel more tired, experts say
• Sleep expert says not getting sunlight in morning can make you go to bed later 

By Rebecca Whittaker For Mailonline

Updated: 08:38 EDT, 3 September 2023

An incorrect flight plan inputted in to an ageing system may be to blame for the air traffic control meltdown, an expert has claimed.

The widespread disruption which started on Monday is understood to have been caused by a single rogue flight plan and continues to affect dozens of services two days on.

Controllers need basic information on each flight to populate their display, such as the flight number, aircraft type, destination and route.

If these details are not spaced and formatted in a certain way, and the computer does not recognise the data, it can cause a system collapse – a failure described this morning as ‘staggering’ by former British Airways boss Willie Walsh.

Many affected travellers are being told to wait as long as 10 days for flights home, with some forced to sleep on airport floors or take long routes by land after their flights were cancelled.

Airlines have been criticised for failing to book hotel rooms for many people who were delayed overnight.

Michele Robson, who has worked in air traffic control for more than 20 years, told the Sky News Daily podcast: ‘When there have been failures in the past, it’s normally something to do with a bad information that’s been input in the incorrect format.

‘It’s a very old system, it’s been running for many years and generally we’ve been very lucky and we don’t often have failures, or if we do, we get it back during that backup time, which is what it’s there for.

‘There have been other instances where something has been incorrectly formatted and the flight plan computer behaves in a way they’re not expecting and effectively causes it to a fail, so that could be enough to potentially crash the system in effect if it was formatted incorrectly.

‘You have to space things in a certain way using a certain number of dots, as an example. They do it in a very unique way that’s never been done before, otherwise it would happen every day.

‘So it has to be something pretty unusual that they’ve input for it to happen, but it’s an old system and perhaps something was input yesterday that it’s never seen before and that’s what caused it to have this reaction where it’s failed.’

Ms Robson, who now runs the Turning Left For Less site, told MailOnline: ‘It could be something like a small operator – not a name like British Airways – doing something unusual. 

‘That can be something like where an aircraft is crossing boundaries between UK and French air space several times. Also, if it is a small operator, they may not be as used to filing plans. It’s unlikely to be one dot in the wrong place.

‘I describe it as the Swiss Cheese model, lots of things added together causing the system to accept that message. For some reason, because it’s never been seen before, it accepted it, and caused the system to fail. 

‘I’ve been through failures and had to go to a manual system and I think people assume it’s like in a film where there are people running around and shouting on the phone, but these people are used to working in a high pressured job.

‘They have emergency training at least once a year, so they know exactly what to do, and take it in their stride. 

Martin Rolfe, chief executive of National Air Traffic Services told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, was asked this morning why the problematic flight data was not rejected by Nats ‘like a piece of spam’.

He replied: ‘Our systems are safety-critical systems, they are dealing with the lives of passengers and the travelling public.

‘So even things like just throwing data away needs to be very carefully considered.

‘If you throw away a critical piece of data you may end up in the next 30 seconds, a minute or an hour with something that then is not right on the screens in front of the controller. So it is nothing like throwing away spam.’

Quizzed on the age of the system and how frequently it needs to be updated, Mr Rolfe added: ‘We have a full programme and we invest £100m a year in new systems and we are constantly evaluating which systems need to be replaced and when. 

‘This is an obviously complex system with safety at the heart of it and the piece of the system we are discussing was replaced quite recently, about five years ago.’

When the failure was first flagged on Monday morning, the system went into its back-up mode – which stores up to four hours of data – rather than risk air-traffic controllers being presented with false information.

As bosses quickly realised the problem wouldn’t be fixed within that four-hour period, they decided to switch to a manual system, where all flight plans have to be entered individually.

This time-consuming process meant that controllers were unable to handle even a percentage of the usual number of aircraft moving in and out of UK airports.

The system was fully restored by 2.30pm on Monday, Mr Rolfe said, but the knock-on effect continues to be felt by passengers, who have been condemned to sleeping on airport floors while desperately waiting for their rescheduled flights.

Aviation analytics company Cirium said 64 flights due to serve UK airports today were cancelled as of 9am – after some 1,585 flights were axed on Monday and a further 345 on Tuesday.

Former British Airways boss Willie Walsh said it was ‘staggering’ that the system was allowed to collapse by a piece of incorrect data. 

Mr Willie, director-general of global airline body the International Air Transport Association (Iata), told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I find it staggering, I really do.

‘This system should be designed to reject data that’s incorrect, not to collapse the system.

‘If that is true, it demonstrates a considerable weakness that must have been there for some time and I’m amazed if that is the cause of this.

‘Clearly we’ll wait for the full evaluation of the problem but that explanation doesn’t stand up from what I know of the system.’

It comes as it emerged that Martin Rolfe, chief executive of National Air Traffic Services, saw his pay double last year to more than £1.3m, after receiving pensions benefits, a £281,000 annual bonus, and a backdated £555,000 long-term incentive plan.

Mr Rolfe declined to answer on whether NATS – or he himself following his personal windfall – should pay as a result of the disruption.

‘At this point, my focus has been entirely on making sure we have recovered the system, which we did on Monday, we were running as normal by 2.30pm,’ he said.

‘We have been supporting and working very closely with the airline CEOs many of whom I’ve spoken to directly to make sure we absolutely get everyone to their destinations as quick as we possibly can, but most importantly, as safely as we possibly can.’ 

Mr Walsh estimated that the chaos will cost airlines around £100million.

He said: ‘It’s very unfair because the air traffic control system which was at the heart of this failure doesn’t pay a single penny.’

The impact continued today with at least a further 42 flights to or from Heathrow cancelled.

Many affected travellers are being told to wait several days for flights home.

Some have been forced to sleep on airport floors or take long routes by land after their flights were cancelled.

Airlines were criticised for failing to book hotel rooms for many people who were delayed overnight.

Rory Boland, editor of consumer magazine Which? Travel, said: ‘We’re seeing worrying reports of passengers being left stranded without support, and airlines failing to properly communicate with their passengers or fulfil their legal obligations such as offering timely rerouting or providing overnight accommodation.

‘In particular, travellers should be aware that their airline has a responsibility to reroute them as soon as possible, even if that means buying them a ticket with a rival carrier – a rule that some airlines appear to be ignoring.

‘Passengers should also be given food and refreshments and overnight accommodation if required.’

EasyJet is operating five repatriation flights to Gatwick, with the first two setting off today.

The airline said: ‘During this traditionally very busy week for travel, options for returning to the UK are more limited on some routes and so easyJet will be operating five repatriation flights to London Gatwick over the coming days from Palma and Faro on August 30, and Tenerife and Enfidha on August 31, and from Rhodes on September 1.

‘We are also operating larger aircraft on key routes including Faro, Ibiza, Dalaman and Tenerife to provide some additional 700 seats this week.’

There is speculation the ATC failure was caused by a French airline submitting a flight plan to Nats in the wrong format.

Downing Street did not rule out that possibility, while Nats declined to comment on whether that was what happened.

The problem resulted in flights to and from UK airports being restricted for several hours on Monday afternoon while flight plans were checked manually.

This caused the cancellation of around 1,500 flights on Monday, with a further 300 axed on Tuesday due to aircraft and crews being out of position.

Mr Rolfe said Nats is working closely with the Civil Aviation Authority to provide a preliminary report into what happened to Transport Secretary Mark Harper.

The conclusions of the inquiry will be made public, he added.

Drifting off to sleep while smelling lavender, eucalyptus or rosemary could help to boost your memory in later life.

Volunteers aged 60 to 85 who were exposed to fragrances at night for six months did far better in a memory test.

They improved their memory by 226 per cent compared to volunteers who did not get the same scent exposure.

The small study, of 43 people, suggests the act of smelling pleasant scents could stimulate the brain in a way which protects against memory loss.

The link between memory and sense of smell – known by scientists as the ‘olfactory’ sense – might help to explain why people in the early stages of dementia start to lose their ability to detect odours.

Professor Michael Yassa, a co-author of the scent study, from the University of California, Irvine, said: ‘The olfactory sense has the special privilege of being directly connected to the brain’s memory circuits.

‘All the other senses are routed first through the thalamus.

He said: ‘Everyone has experienced how powerful aromas are in evoking recollections, even from very long ago.

‘However, unlike with vision changes that we treat with glasses and hearing aids for hearing impairment, there has been no intervention for the loss of smell.’

The volunteers in the study were given a diffuser for their bedroom, and 20 out of 43 of them received essential oils, which smelled of lavender, rose, orange, eucalyptus, lemon, peppermint and rosemary.

They turned on the diffuser when they went to bed, and one scent per night was released into the air for two hours as they fell asleep.

The other 23 people, who were the control group, also switched on the diffuser when they went to bed, but their diffusers only pumped out distilled water with a minimal, undetectable scent.

The participants, who had no cognitive impairment or dementia, were given a battery of tests, including the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, where people have to recall words from a list to gauge their verbal learning and memory.

The 226 per cent better performance on this test was seen in the group exposed to the fragrances compared to the control group.

MRI scans revealed those who had fallen asleep with the seven scents over six months also had better functioning in the ‘uncinate fasciculus’ – a brain pathway which deteriorates with ageing and has been linked to memory.

The researchers of the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, say the finding transforms the long-known link between smell and memory into an easy technique for strengthening memory and potentially protecting against dementia.

It follows evidence that exposing people with moderate dementia to up to 40 different odours twice a day boosted their memories and language skills and eased depression.

Cynthia Woo, who led the new study from the University of California, Irvine, said: ‘By making it possible for people to experience the odours while sleeping, we eliminated the need to set aside time for this during waking hours every day.’

Just thinking you’ve had a good night’s sleep is more important to your mood than actually having one, study finds

• Paying too much attention to your sleep could be having a detrimental impact 

By Xantha Leatham Deputy Science Editor For The Daily Mail

Updated: 19:38 EDT, 3 August 2023

White House confirms Biden, 80, is now using breathing machine to treat sleep disorder – after thick mask lines on his face sparked more health questions

• President Joe Biden has started using a CPAP machine
• The machine treats sleep apnea  
• Biden’s sleep apnea has been public knowledge since 2008

By Nikki Schwab, Senior U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.com

Published: 15:08 EDT, 28 June 2023 | Updated: 15:58 EDT, 28 June 2023

As summer draws near, you might find yourself thrashing about in the bed covers, trying to get to sleep.

When it is too hot, our bodies can struggle to cool down, disrupting the relaxation process and making it difficult to fall asleep. 

And a recent study found that getting a good night’s sleep is more urgent than ever because it can lead to a 40 percent lower chance of early death.

Experts have revealed some lesser-known tips for staying cool through the night.

Use a hot water bottle

Using a hot water bottle in summer might sound counterintuitive, but sleep expert James Wilson recommends a tepid bottle on your feet to raise your core temperature slightly. 

Then when you go to bed, your core temperature will drop.

This is an important part of your body falling asleep and helps trick the body into thinking it is cooler than it is. 

Submerge your feet in water

Like a hot water bottle, submerging your feet in a bowl of lukewarm water offers long-lasting coolness.

But watch the temperature of the water — using ice-cold water can shock you awake and make it harder to fall asleep.

Make your own cold air

A bowl of ice placed in front of a fan will generate a cold breeze rather than circulate existing warm air around the room.

Freeze your pajamas

Popping your pajamas in an air-tight bag in the fridge or freezer before bed for a few minutes can give you a cool treat.

You could also put your pillowcase in the freezer to help keep you cool in the night. 

Don’t sleep naked

As tempting as it may be to strip off, a UK psychologist recommends against the practice.

Suzy Reading told UK bedding company Kudd.ly: ‘I wouldn’t recommend sleeping naked, as much as this might appeal, because sweat then collects on your skin rather than being absorbed by the fibers of your clothing and cooling you down.’

She instead suggested wearing ‘loose-fitting, airy, light garments in natural fibers,’ like cotton, silk, eucalyptus or bamboo, ideally in lighter-colored shades, the New York Post reported.

Leave hair damp

Putting down your hairdryer and leaving your hair wet after showering will leave you feeling cooler for longer.

Breathing techniques

Sitali breathing is a yoga breathing practice known for its cooling ability. 

Try doing it seated. On inhalation only, curl up your tongue like a straw and sip in your breath 

Avoid spicy foods

What you eat can also have an impact on how well you sleep. 

Ms Reading warned against eating anything spicy while you are winding down.

‘Be careful with fermented foods like teriyaki or soy sauce, tofu and miso, also citrus fruit, cured meats and aged cheeses,’ she said.

‘These contain the amino acid tyramine, which can increase brain activity and make it harder to fall asleep.’ 

Our bodies take more energy to diagnose a large, rich or heavy meal and produce  more metabolic heat.

A light evening meal in summer will counteract this. 

Don’t share covers

If you sleep with a partner, you should consider using separate blankets. 

While snuggling up to your significant other might be tempting, their body heat will only transfer to you.

Ms Reading said: ‘A simple way to more effectively optimize your personal sleep environment is to use separate coverings so you can tailor it to your preferences and reduce the possibility of bedtime tug-o-wars.’ 

Use aloe vera

California meteorologist Jodi Kodesh said that using aloe vera before bed trumps taking a cold shower because she claims it absorbs into the body four times quicker than water.

She recommends lathering up all over your body just before bed for a cooling effect.

One of my regrets in life is not being able to speak another language with any real fluency.

I’m embarrassed by my very basic French, but not embarrassed enough to put in the hard work to improve it. So I was delighted when I came across a recent study which suggested you can learn new words in your sleep.

Researchers from the University of Bern in Switzerland played volunteers a range of words in a language they didn’t understand, along with a translation, while they were in deep sleep.

Then, 36 hours later, they were asked to guess if a particular word meant an animal, a tool or a place. They did significantly better than a control group, who weren’t played the words — proving astonishingly that, despite being deeply asleep, they were still aware enough to learn something new.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that to produce this effect, the researchers had to use very short words, delivered at just the right moment in the volunteers’ sleep cycles, so unfortunately I am not sure this is going to help me.

But this study does confirm just how much is going on in our brains while we are sleeping.

And it adds to mounting evidence that deep sleep plays a vital role in memory and may even protect us against Alzheimer’s.

Deep sleep is one of the four main stages of our sleep cycle. It’s also known as slow-wave sleep because it’s when millions of neurons in your brain start firing together, producing big waves that slowly travel through your brain.

In deep sleep you’re at your most relaxed, and difficult to rouse, but below the surface there is plenty going on.

Your pituitary gland in the brain starts to secrete more growth hormone, vital for cell growth and repair, for instance.

Deep sleep also boosts production of cytokines, a type of protein that’s key for helping fight infections, which is partly why a lack of deep sleep makes you more vulnerable to colds and also reduces the efficacy of vaccines against infections such as the flu.

And deep sleep is when a network of channels in your brain, known as the glymphatic system, opens up, allowing fluid to pour through it, washing away the toxic waste that’s built up during the day. Which in turn can protect us from the impact of diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

This was demonstrated in a fascinating new study by the University of California (UC), Berkeley, where researchers measured the brain activity of healthy adults in their 70s as they slept. The study participants also had brain scans to measure levels of amyloid, a protein linked to memory loss and dementia.

The results showed that despite having high amounts of amyloid in their brain, the participants who got plenty of deep sleep did far better in memory tests than those who had less.

The researchers think deep sleep could help explain why some people, despite their brains being clogged with amyloid, continue to thrive into old age, while others develop signs of dementia.

As Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience at UC Berkeley and a leading sleep expert, explained: ‘Think of deep sleep almost like a life raft that keeps your memory afloat, rather than memory getting dragged down by the weight of Alzheimer’s disease.’

Adults typically get around one to two hours of deep sleep a night, but this tends to drop off as we get older.

So how can we boost it? Apart from obvious things, such as cutting back on booze and getting to bed reasonably early (typically most deep sleep occurs in the first half of the night, which may give modern credence to the old saying, every hour of sleep before midnight is worth two after), you could try cutting down on junk food and instead eat a higher fibre, Mediterranean-style diet.

Numerous studies have shown that people who follow a Mediterranean-style diet (one that is rich in nuts, olive oil, oily fish and vegetables) have better quality sleep, while those who eat junk food tend to struggle. This includes research published recently in the journal Obesity, which compared the effect on sleep of a healthy diet with one that was moderately high in ultra-processed food.

The researchers from the University of Uppsala in Sweden randomly allocated a group of healthy young men to one approach for a week, then switched over.

Although the young men slept just as long on either diet, when they were eating junk food they had shallower, less restorative deep sleep, something which would become increasingly important as we get older.

Surprisingly enough, listening to sound can also make a difference. A couple of years ago I tried out a headband which measures your brain activity during sleep. As soon as the headband detects that you are in deep sleep, it makes a clicking noise that is quiet enough that it doesn’t wake you up.

For unknown reasons this clicking noise, delivered at just the right moment, helps to boost those low slow waves you get in deep sleep.

Unfortunately it didn’t do anything for me, but a study published last year by University Hospital Zurich produced more positive results.

It tested a similar device on a range of people, aged 60 to 80, and found that it did help some get more deep sleep (though others, like me, responded minimally or not at all).

The researchers are currently trying to improve its effectiveness before releasing a commercial version.

But by far the simplest thing you can do, particularly as we approach the longest day of the year, is to wear an eye mask.

Even with thick curtains you will be getting a lot of exposure to bright light first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and that will almost certainly be disrupting your sleep.

Wearing a mask works for me.

Does your face look older than your inner arm?

There’s much I love about this time of year, but the downsides include wasps, mozzies and worst of all, ultraviolet (UV) light.

I’ve recently finished making a TV series on ageing, and one of the most striking things I learned is just how much the sun ages our skin, with up to 80 per cent of facial ageing due to damage from UV light.

To see what your face would have looked like if you hadn’t been exposed to too much UV light, check out the parts of your body which don’t get lots of sun exposure, such as inside your upper arm.

Of course, prevention is better than cure: you can check the strength of the sun in your area with the UV index (just search online) — this runs from 1 to 11, but even in the 3-5 range you can still burn.

Once the damage is done, the creams with the best research behind them contain retinol, a compound shown to reduce the appearance of wrinkles by increasing the elasticity and thickness of your skin. But retinol can cause skin irritation so start with a low concentration (0.1 per cent).

No one wants to become wrinkly before their time, but developing skin cancers is even worse. Although melanoma is the most feared, other forms of skin cancer, such as basal cell carcinomas (BCCs), are far more common and over the past decade the number of BCC cases has risen by 40 per cent.

My wife, Clare, is one of them: now in her early 60s, she’s recently had two removed from her face.

Although BCCs tend to appear later in life, the damage is normally done at a much earlier age. A sobering study by the University of Arizona, soon to be published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, has found that getting sunburnt just once every two years, at any point in your life, nearly doubles your risk of a BCC. So keep an eye on that UV index.

A few years ago I became a living exhibit at the Science Museum in London, when I swallowed a tiny camera and the pictures were projected on a giant screen. Visitors to the museum could see live images from inside my stomach.

It was fantastically interesting, particularly when I ate and we were able to watch the food arrive in my stomach and slowly get digested.

At the time I thought how much better it would be if I could manoeuvre the camera for the best images. And now researchers at George Washington University in the U.S. have done just that, using magnets operated by a video game-style joystick.

I look forward to giving it a test run.

Tomorrow is Father’s Day and there’s still time to buy a card or call to let your dad know how much you love him. Sadly mine died 20 years ago, but I miss him a lot. And now I’m a father myself I can appreciate all the things he did for me. He died aged 74 from, among other things, complications of type 2 diabetes. One of my greatest sadnesses is I wasn’t able to give him the advice and support that might have kept him in good health for longer. So if your parents are still alive, cherish them. 

Two British victims on the Egyptian dive boat that caught fire in the Red Sea had decided to sleep in on the morning fire broke out, while the other Brit who died returned to his cabin to grab personal belongings, according to a report.

Sources told Al Arabiya.net that the three missing persons, a woman and two men, were inside their rooms on the boat at the moment that the fire broke out on Sunday morning, noting that one of them left the room in an attempt to escape, but then returned.

They also added that he may have wanted to take his phone, passport or some of his personal belongings from the room but he was then unable to leave.

The sources told the media outlet that the other two, the man and the woman, hated waking up early and were asleep when the fire started because they did not take part in the diving trip. 

They also noted that their rooms were located near the fuel tank and that they may have died from suffocation or from their burns. 

Scuba Travel, the company that chartered the boat, announced that the three Brits who ‘perished in the tragic incident’ off the coast of Marsa Alam had chosen not to go diving that day, leaving them unable to evacuate the boat quickly.

Investigators combing through the wreckage confirmed today that the three victims were found below deck in their cabins after failing to escape the intense fire. 

Scuba Travel said that the three passengers were among 15 qualified diving enthusiasts who were on board the ‘Hurricane’ boat for a week-long trip when the fire broke out at around 6.30am UK time.

‘At the time the fire broke out, 12 divers were participating in a briefing on board, while those missing had apparently decided not to dive that morning,’ the company added. 

Scuba Travel said that due to the severity of the blaze, 12 divers were evacuated immediately to a nearby craft, while the 14 crew members had to abandon the ship after trying to reach the missing guests. 

Footage on social media showed the tour boat transform into a floating inferno as its stern was engulfed by flames, producing plumes of black smoke while it was off the Elphinstone Reef in the Red Sea.

A video showed terrified passengers jumping from the ship, which had 29 people on board at the time, to escape after a suspected electrical fault in the engine room.

A spokesman for Scuba Travel confirmed to MailOnline yesterday: ‘It is with great regret that we, as tour operator, with heavy hearts, must accept that three of our much-valued dive guests, perished in the tragic incident.

‘Our sincere and heartfelt condolences go out to their families and friends at this very sad time.’

In total, 26 passengers were rescued, 12 British and the other 14 are thought to be Egyptian. Local police said the people rescued had no injuries and were in good health. 

They also said the crew rescued suffered no injuries and were taken to shore in good health.

The shocked group of survivors were today being offered trauma counselling following their ordeal, which was compounded by the devastating loss of the three people with whom they bonded closely during their week together. 

The Britons have been moved to a hotel in Hurghada, 180 miles north of the tragedy, while emergency travel documents to allow them to return to the UK are arranged.

A spokesperson for Scuba Travel, Pat Adamson, said: ‘They lost everything on the boat. People will be searching under the sea, but if nothing reappears, then that’s it.

‘All of their credit cards, money, personal belongings, toothbrush, car keys, credit cards, everything gone – and their passports.

‘Their cars are at Gatwick, they don’t have their house keys.’

The group had been together for a week-long trip.

Mr Adamson added: ‘There’s a trauma counsellor with them now. Even though they’d only been together for a few days, it’s a small group and you get to know each other incredibly well.’

A full investigation is set to be carried out by local authorities to determine what caused the fire. The wrecked boat has been pictured lying on its side with smoke still billowing out of it on the shore as it cools down.

The cruiser left Port Ghalib in the eastern city of Marsa Alam on June 6 and was meant to return on Sunday.

It was said to be one of the Tornado Marine Fleet tours, which offers ‘Luxury Red Sea Liveaboards’ for just under £1,500 per trip.

A Foreign Office spokesman said on Sunday: ‘We are in contact with local authorities following an incident aboard a dive boat near Marsa Alam, and are supporting British nationals involved.’ 

MailOnline has contacted the Foreign Office for an updated comment. 

The Red Sea Governorate said: ‘The initial examination resulted in an electrical short circuit in the engine room, and the investigation authorities went to conduct an inspection and investigation.’

It added: ‘[The Secretary General] pointed out that the crew and passengers were rescued by the boat named “Blue” and returned to central Marsa Alam, and a search is still underway for three British passengers by the concerned authorities and other boats, stressing that the Ambulance Authority and the Directorate of Health Affairs have been notified to raise the level of readiness and follow-up is underway.’ 

A diving enthusiast who was on the same ship in May, said the boat was plagued with problems and no one was surprised the blaze had occurred.

He told MailOnline: ‘[We had] recurring issues from the week of May 1 and 8. There was no nitrox on board. They should have had it but they never told us. 

‘The toilets and the showers weren’t working properly.’

He added: ‘There was some issue below the decks. They were pumping something out but it was coming up my toilet. 

‘The crew work very hard – they don’t get paid a lot – but the boat has seen better days. 

‘I was in cabin six in the bow so I wouldn’t have wanted to get out from there. 

‘None of us are surprised that [the blaze] happened.’

Egypt’s Red Sea resorts harbour some of the country’s most renowned beach destinations and are popular with European holidaymakers.

The country has cemented its reputation as a dive destination with easy access to coral reefs from shores and dive sites offering diverse marine life.