A Turkish navy vessel located the wreck of a ship that sank off Istanbul’s Silivri district, the Defense Ministry said on Sept. 4.
The cargo ship Tuğberk İmamoğlu and the tanker Alsu collided at around 3:15 a.m. on Sept. 2, approximately 18 nautical miles (35 kilometers) south of Silivri, in one of the busiest shipping corridors in the Sea of Marmara.
The Turkish Navy’s search and rescue vessel TCG Akın located the sunken ship, the ministry said, without providing information on the wreck’s exact position or the depth at which it was found.
Search and rescue operations for the ship’s 10 crew members are ongoing, according to the ministry.
The development came as apreliminary expert report into the collision pointed to malfunctions in the vessel’s electronic navigation systems and shortcomings in the crew’s allocation of duties.
According to the preliminary expert report released on Sept. 3, the sinking vessel was operating in “ghost ship” mode shortly before the accident, meaning the vessel was not transmitting AIS data. The
Automatic Identification System (AIS) enables ships to broadcast information such as their position, course and speed to nearby vessels.
Just five minutes before the accident, third captain Murat Evciman of the Alsu contacted the Tuğberk İmamoğlu. The Tuğberk İmamoğlu instructed the Alsu to “give way to port,” meaning to alter course to the left.
However, the two vessels proceeded in different directions than had been agreed.
The expert panel noted that the reasons behind the Tuğberk İmamoğlu’s subsequent loss of stability and sinking require further investigation, adding that the vessel’s loading condition should also be examined.
The report also highlighted shortcomings in the crew arrangements aboard the Alsu. Evciman, who was serving as third captain at the time of the accident, was on his first watch aboard the vessel. According to the report, he was unfamiliar with the ship’s navigation equipment.
A trainee lookout was also on duty aboard the Alsu at 3:10 a.m. However, the rest of the crew, including the captain, were asleep at the time.
Captain Ahmet Eraslan was also asleep and woke at around 3:20 a.m., after the collision, to assess what had happened.
The first and third officers of the Alsu were arrested on Sept. 3.
The preliminary expert report suggested that both vessels suffered problems involving their crews and navigation systems, indicating that the collision may have been virtually unavoidable given the circumstances.
