Container ship Contship Jet sinks after drone attack off Bulgaria's Cape Kaliakra
The freighter hit by three sea drones sank around midnight, the regional governor of Varna said. It was carrying 421 containers. Seawater samples are being taken along the coast today.
Archive image · Photo: Spiridon Manoliu / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (cropped and resized)
The container ship Contship Jet, attacked off Cape Kaliakra on Wednesday, has sunk. The vessel went down around midnight, the regional governor of Varna, Mario Smarkov, told broadcaster bTV on Thursday morning. A representative of the European confederation of shipmasters' associations told Nova TV that Black Sea traffic control had recorded the sinking. On Wednesday evening officials had still said there was no indication the ship had sunk.
The Liberian-flagged freighter was sailing from Haifa to Constanța when three sea drones struck it some 17 nautical miles offshore, inside Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone. All 18 crew members were rescued by the navy and taken to Varna. About 20 of the 421 containers on board fell into the sea, some holding fuel and other hazardous goods, according to the captain. According to the Focus news agency, it is the fifth ship attacked in Bulgaria's economic zone in a month.
Captain Dimitar Dimitrov, president of the European confederation of shipmasters' associations, said the shipowner should hand over the full cargo manifest so the risk from drifting containers can be assessed. Teams from the Black Sea basin directorate and the Executive Environment Agency are to take water samples near Durankulak, Shabla, Kaliakra, Byala and Sozopol to check for pollution, BNT reported.