Master and Third Officer of the Tanker Alsu Arrested Over the Marmara Collision
The officer on watch had just joined the ship and was standing his first watch aboard her
A Turkish court has charged the master and third officer of the tanker Alsu with negligent homicide after the early morning collision that sank the cargo ship Tugberk Imamoglu in the Sea of Marmara, and both were arrested late on Thursday.
Prosecutors brought the captain, several officers and crew members before the district court in the Silivri region west of Istanbul. Four crew members were released under court supervision while the captain and third officer were held. Nine crew had been detained after the collision, with only the ship's cook not taken into custody.
The arrests rest on preliminary findings from an expert panel assembled after the casualty. The panel found the Alsu was in the hands of a junior third officer who had only just joined the vessel and was standing his first watch aboard her, and who was unfamiliar with the ship's navigation equipment. Accounts differ on the rest of the bridge team: some say a trainee was acting as lookout, others that there was neither helmsman nor lookout. The captain was asleep, and in his testimony said he woke after the collision and went to find out what had happened. He is charged with failing in his duty of supervision and oversight of navigational safety, and the third officer with failing to take the measures necessary to prevent the collision.
The panel also flagged problems on the other side. The Tugberk Imamoglu was not transmitting an AIS signal, and it is unclear whether the system had failed or was switched off. The panel said the cargo ship's loading condition needs examination. She was carrying 4,199 tonnes of rolled steel and is thought to have capsized and sunk within ten minutes of the impact, an outcome consistent with the density of the cargo and the speed of downflooding. The initial account of the sinking is in the Marmara collision report.
About five minutes before the collision the two ships spoke to each other and agreed passing arrangements. Prosecutors said they would listen to the recording of that exchange, and have ordered the preservation of navigation records and other data. Alcohol tests on the crew were negative, and full blood tests have been ordered.
The ten crew members from the cargo ship remain missing despite an extensive search. The Turkish Navy reported on Friday that its vessel TCG Akin had located the wreck. No details were released on position, depth or condition, though earlier reports put the water depth in the area at about 900 metres.
