Rescuers reach sunken ship’s wreckage off Istanbul

Turkey’s navy has located the wreckage of a cargo ship that sank off Istanbul after colliding with an oil tanker, leaving 10 crew members missing, officials said Saturday.

In a pre-dawn collision earlier this week, the ALSU, an empty oil tanker, struck the Tugberk Imamoglu, a cargo vessel carrying rolled steel, in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul.

“The TCG Akin vessel of our Naval Forces Command, which we are currently aboard, has located the wreck of the sunken ship,” Istanbul governor Davut Gul said in a video shared by the governor’s office on X.

A naval officer accompanying Gul said the vessel had been located at a depth of 710m.

“At a depth of 710m, we obtained four images using an underwater robot deployed near the bow section of the Tugberk Imamoglu,” the officer said.

Showing footage from the wreck, he said: “I am showing a section of the vessel’s midship area. A large rupture can be seen”.

Officials have said the cargo ship sank “very quickly” in waters about 900m deep, around 18 nautical miles off Silivri, west of Istanbul, leaving all 10 crew members missing.

Gul said the families of the missing sailors were seeking answers about their fate.

“The families now want to know whether the crew is still inside and how they will be recovered,” he said.

“The relevant authorities will continue their efforts on these questions. I extend my condolences to our nation,” he said.

According to a marine accident expert report prepared for prosecutors and seen by AFP on Thursday, there were multiple breaches of safety procedures aboard the tanker.

“The fundamental root cause … resulting in a catastrophe, was the deficiencies and failures on the bridge of the M/T ALSU,” the report said.

The tanker’s captain and third officer were arrested on charges of negligent homicide, prosecutors said on Friday.

The investigation is being handled by prosecutors in Silivri, on the western outskirts of Istanbul province.

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