23rd body recovered off Kyrenia after ferry sinking; five still missing

Kyrenia, Cyprus. A 23rd body has been recovered from the sea off Kyrenia as searches continue following the sinking of a passenger ferry in August, Turkish Cypriot “prime minister” Unal Ustel said on Tuesday. Five people remain unaccounted for.

Search and identification efforts

Ustel said efforts were underway to identify the body, the second recovered from the sea within two hours.

The ferry sank shortly after midday on August 30 after departing from Kyrenia’s new port for the Turkish port of Tasucu. It was carrying 259 passengers and eight crew members.

Nine remain in custody

Following the sinking, nine people were arrested: the captain, now identified as Mustafa Oz, seven crew members and a representative of the ferry’s operating company, Filo Denizcilik. All nine remain in custody and most recently appeared in court on Friday.

At an earlier hearing, the court was told that a crack had appeared on the side of the vessel almost two months before it sank. Photographs recovered from the first mate’s mobile phone indicated that repairs were carried out on June 17.

The court heard that Oz and the crew carried out the repairs at a port in Cyprus without informing the Turkish Cypriot authorities, despite Oz and Filo Denizcilik being required to notify them in such circumstances.

Questions over seaworthiness certification

The repairs took place just 15 days after Istanbul-based ship classification firm Turk Loydu certified the vessel as seaworthy.

The certificate states that it is valid until 2029, but Turk Loydu’s online database lists it as “invalid”. It remains unclear whether the certificate was declared invalid before or after the August 30 sinking.

The Cyprus Mail has contacted Turk Loydu. Turkish Cypriot police said last month that they were also awaiting a response from the firm about the procedures followed during the vessel’s examination.

Turkish Cypriot “transport minister” Faiz Sucuoglu suggested that the ferry had been involved in an unreported “minor accident” before it sank and asked: “What fault does Turk Loydu have here?”