Istanbul: Turkish authorities announced on Thursday that the search continues for ten crew members of a Turkish cargo ship that sank early Wednesday morning in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul after colliding with another Turkish merchant vessel. The authorities stated that they deployed approximately 18 ships, five helicopters, two drones, an airplane, and a naval vessel equipped for underwater search operations to participate in the deep-water search, where the water depth in the area of the accident is estimated to be between 800 and 900 meters.
According to National Iraqi News Agency, the second ship, which was not damaged in the collision, docked at one of Istanbul’s ports and an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the incident. Turkish Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, confirmed on Wednesday the sinking of the cargo ship TUGBERK IMAMOGLU, which collided with the cargo ship ALSU off the coast of Silivri in the Sea of Marmara, Istanbul.
The Turkish Minister of Transport stated in a press conference: “We received a distress call at 3:26 AM via a location-reporting system. The main rescue center attempted to contact the vessel, and the captain of one of the ships responded, confirming the collision. We dispatched teams to the area, and upon arrival, we confirmed the likely sinking of the TUGBERK IMAMOGLU.” He added, “There were 10 Turkish citizens on board the sunken vessel. We can say that it sank in a short period of approximately 11 minutes. We found some debris from the ship, but we haven’t found anyone alive.” He emphasized that search and rescue operations are continuing without interruption.
Images published by the Turkish newspaper Hrriyet showed rescue teams finding an empty lifeboat and raft belonging to the sunken vessel. Authorities have not yet released any preliminary findings regarding the cause of the collision in one of the busiest and most regularly used shipping lanes. The newspaper quoted a ship’s pilot at the same location as saying that such a collision in the Marmara was “surprising” given the monitoring and navigational separation systems in operation at sea, raising possibilities ranging from technical malfunction to duty failure, which will be determined by a maritime safety investigation.