Tanker captain arrested over cargo ship sinking off Istanbul
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A Turkish Coast Guard ship during a search for crew members around the ALSU oil tanker after the latter collided with another ship near Silivri in the Sea of Marmara, off Istanbul.
PHOTO: AFP
Istanbul - The captain of an oil tanker that hit a cargo ship that sank in waters off Istanbul, leaving 10 missing, has been arrested along with his third officer, media reports said on Sept 4.
The pair were formally arrested by a court late on Sept 3, a day after the pre-dawn collision in which the ALSU, an empty oil tanker, struck the Tugberk Imamoglu, a cargo vessel carrying rolled steel, in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul.
The case is being handled by prosecutors in Silivri on the western outskirts of Istanbul province.
According to the prosecutors’ statement, the Silvri court charged the pair with negligent homicide for failing to fulfil their navigational safety obligations and take the necessary measures to prevent the collision.
It said the captain, identified only as A.E., “failed to fulfil his duty of supervision and oversight of navigational safety” while the other suspect, M.E., “who served as the third captain and watch officer at the time of the incident, failed to take the necessary measures to prevent the collision in a timely and effective manner”.
The court ordered four other suspects be granted conditional release, it said.
Officials said the damaged cargo ship sank “very quickly” in waters about 900m deep, some 18 nautical miles off Silivri, leaving all 10 crew members missing.
Although rescuers have yet to recover the Tugberk Imamoglu’s voyage data recorder (VDR) – its “black box” – an expert report prepared for Silivri prosecutor’s said there had been 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, a copy of which was seen by AFP on Sept 3.
It said an inexperienced third officer was at the helm and there was no lookout on duty, describing it as “serious negligence”.
“No helmsman or lookout was posted on the bridge and the officer, who had only recently joined the vessel and lacked experience, was left alone on watch,” the report said.
It also pointed to shortcomings on the part of the cargo ship.
Search and rescue operations continued on Sept 4.
Prosecutors have started legal proceedings against nine ALSU crew members, excluding the cook, six of whom had appeared in court on Sept 3. AFP
