Another body found near Kyrenia ferry wreckage, four remain missing

A twenty-fourth body was recovered from the sea off the coast of Kyrenia on Wednesday as search operations continue following the sinking of a passenger ferry off the town’s coast in August, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel said. He said efforts are now underway to identify the body, with a total of four bodies now having been found since the weekend. Two of those were recovered on Tuesday, and it was announced on Tuesday night that they had been identified as Mahmut Demir and Ozgur Gonul. A total of four people now remain unaccounted for after the accident, which occurred shortly after midday on August 30, after the ferry set sail from the new port of Kyrenia to the Turkish port of Tasucu with 259 passengers and eight members of crew on board. Related Articles • Kyrenia ferry search operation continuing ‘inch by inch’, Sucuoglu says • No more bodies remain in sunken Kyrenia ferry wreckage • Kyrenia ferry only underwent ‘superficial’ repairs after crack appeared in June • There must be full investigations into Cyprus boat tragedies • Crew ‘locked doors of passenger cabin’ as Kyrenia ferry took on water • Mother who died in Kyrenia ferry disaster ‘gave own life jacket to daughter’ Following the disaster, a total of nine people – the boat’s captain Mustafa Oz, seven members of his crew, and one representative of its operating company, Filo Denizcilik – were arrested, with all nine remaining in custody. They most recently appeared in court last Friday, while it was said at a previous hearing that a crack had appeared on the side of the boat almost two months before it sank 30 and that, according to photographs recovered from the first mate’s mobile phone, the repairs were carried out on June 17. Questions remain over ship’s certificate, captain’s licence Those repairs were done by Oz and the boat’s crew, with the court hearing that they were carried out at a port in Cyprus, but that the Turkish Cypriot authorities were not informed, despite Oz and Filo Denizcilik being obliged to inform them under such circumstances. The repairs were carried out just 15 days after Istanbul-based ship classification firm Turk Loydu had certified the boat as seaworthy. Turkish Cypriot ‘transport minister’ Faiz Sucuoglu had suggested that the ferry had been involved in an unreported “minor accident” prior to its sinking, and asked, “what fault does Turk Loydu have here?”. However, a police representative told the court on Friday on this matter that “no such evidence has been found”. Previously, it had been said in court that Oz had bought his Honduran captain’s licence for $3,500. A police representative said Oz had said under questioning that he had initially obtained a licence in Turkey, but that it had become invalid after he did not work as a boat captain for ten years.