Remembering the Salem Express shipwreck off the Red Sea coast some 27 years later: Divers continue to explore the wreck site of the Panama-owned ferry MV Salem Express, CairoScene writes, finding cars, televisions and debris perfectly intact in an underwater time capsule. On 17 December 1991, the Salem Express sailed from Jeddah to Egypt’s Safaga Port with 690 people onboard, mostly Egyptians returning from pilgrimage. Shortly after midnight, the passenger ship sank after running into a coral reef. Some 470 passengers went down with the ship and the remaining passengers were left in frigid water for nine hours before being rescued. Only 178 people survived the sinking, one of Egypt’s worst maritime disasters.