Cargo Ship Vanishes With 10 After Istanbul Collision
Cargo Ship Vanishes With 10 After Istanbul Collision
The News
A Turkish-flagged cargo ship and its 10 crew members are missing after colliding with another Turkish-flagged vessel in the Sea of Marmara, southwest of Istanbul, early Wednesday.
The Istanbul governor's office said contact was lost with the cargo ship Tugberk Imamoglu after it struck the tanker Alsu at around 3 a.m. local time. The Alsu appeared undamaged.
Coast guard boats and a helicopter are searching the area. "It is currently impossible to establish contact with the cargo ship Tugberk Imamoglu and its 10 crew members," the governor's office said in a statement.
The Ships
The Tugberk Imamoglu is a 90-meter (295-foot) cargo ship. Turkish officials said it was headed for the Black Sea port of Eregli; the Independent reported it was sailing from Turkey's Mediterranean port of Iskenderun.
The Alsu is a 91-meter (298-foot) oil or chemical tanker that was sailing from Kocaeli, east of Istanbul, to Aliaga on the Aegean coast, according to the Marine Traffic website cited by the Independent. The governor's office said it did not appear to have been damaged.
Timeline
the two Turkish-flagged ships collide in the Sea of Marmara, a little more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Silivri, a western district of Istanbul, according to the Istanbul governor's office.
Shortly after the collision: authorities lose contact with the Tugberk Imamoglu and its crew of 10.
Turkey launches a search operation. "Numerous naval units from the coast guard's Marmara and Bosphorus Command and a coast guard helicopter were dispatched to the scene," the governor's office said.
Reactions
The Istanbul governor's office is the only authority to have spoken publicly so far, describing the collision, the lost contact and the search deployment in a written statement. No cause has been given and no casualties have been confirmed.
Neither the ships' operators nor Turkey's transport ministry had issued a public statement as of Wednesday morning, according to the reporting available.
What's Next
The coast guard search for the Tugberk Imamoglu and its crew continues. Turkish authorities have not said whether the ship sank, and have not announced an investigation into what caused the collision.
More
The Turkish Straits — the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles at either end of the Sea of Marmara — are among the busiest shipping lanes in the world, with hundreds of thousands of vessels moving between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea each year. That traffic includes a large share of the grain and oil exports that leave Black Sea ports, which is why accidents in these waters draw attention well beyond Turkey.
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