A Turkish cargo ship carrying 10 crew members sank on Wednesday after colliding with a tanker off the coast of Istanbul, with no immediate signs of survivors, Turkish authorities said. A lifeboat and other debris from the Tugberk Imamoglu have been found, but there has been no sign of the crew, Turkey's General Directorate of Maritime Affairs said in a statement. We can say that the sinking occurred rapidly in 11 minutes.
No one has been found alive.” Two helicopters and 12 search and rescue vessels were searching the area. The ship collided with the Turkish-flagged tanker Alsu in the Marmara Sea at around 3 am (2 am CEST), according to the General Directorate of Maritime Affairs. An emergency signal was received from the Tugberk Imamoglu, with the first rescue vessel reaching the area at around 4:10 am (3:10 am CEST).
The Alsu's captain had reported the collision as happening at 3:15 am, with 14 search and rescue vessels dispatched to the area backed by a helicopter, it said. The directorate's head, Unal Baylan, said the ships had been communicating with each other by radio immediately prior to the collision indicating “that the two captains saw each other and were talking to each other to adjust their routes,” he told a news conference. The owner of the Tugberk Imamoglu said the ship's captain had contacted the Alsu before the collision, warning that the tanker was entering the cargo vessel's shipping lane.
Turkish news agency DHA reported that radio recordings showed the Tugberk Imamoglu's captain warning the Alsu to steer to port in an attempt to avoid the collision. The Alsu's owners did not immediately respond to the claim. The 90-metre cargo ship was travelling from the Mediterranean port of Iskenderun to Eregli on the Black Sea.
The 91-metre Alsu, an oil or chemical tanker, was sailing from Kocaeli, east of Istanbul, to Aliaga on Turkey's Aegean coast, according to MarineTraffic. The Silivri Public Prosecutor’s Office said it had launched an investigation into the sinking.
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