Eighteenth body recovered after Kyrenia ferry disaster

An eighteenth body has been recovered from the seas surrounding the wreckage of a ferry which sank off the coast of Kyrenia last month, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel said on Tuesday evening. He said that the body will now be taken for DNA analysis to determine its identity. Additionally, he said that the bodies of the two people who were recovered on Monday had been identified as Nihat Pancar and Mehmet Asaf Bicer. Bicer was just five years old when he boarded the ferry. His sister, 12-year-old Miray Bicer, remains unaccounted for, while his parents, Ayten Bicer and Hayri Bicer, survived the accident. Related Articles • Two more bodies from Kyrenia ferry wreckage found • Turkish Cypriot authorities ‘were not informed’ of crack in Kyrenia ferry’s hull • Kyrenia ferry only underwent ‘superficial’ repairs after crack appeared in June • New deep-sea rescue ship arrives in search for sunken Kyrenia ferry • Final hospital patient from Kyrenia ferry disaster discharged Ayten Bicer recounted the ordeal on the day after the ferry sank, saying that her daughter was “saying, ‘don’t let go’, and I didn’t let go of my daughter. “I swear, I didn’t let her go,” she said, tears streaming down her face, before explaining that a suitcase fell on top of her, forcing her daughter from her grasp. She said that she had grabbed her daughter’s foot, but that her shoes, coated in engine oil from the overturned boat, slipped through her hands. Ayten Bicer and Hayri Bicer outside the new port of Kyrenia Hayri Bicer, meanwhile, explained that everything happened suddenly on the day of the accident. “We couldn’t intervene. We lost our children. We made a lot of effort, but we couldn’t save our children. Two of my children are gone. One of my sons is alive. Two of my children are gone. Two of my three children are gone. We left them. We are leaving them on this island as we go,” he said. Ayten Bicer later said that “it was slipping like oil” and that “there was diesel, our feet were slippery”. “It was slippery everywhere. It was like oil. She slipped out of my hand. Mehmet Asaf held on to his father here,” she said, showing the collar of her T-shirt – “saying, ‘Baba’”, she added. Ten remain unaccounted for a month after ferry sank A total of ten people now remain unaccounted for as a result of the accident, with 30 days having now passed. The ferry capsized shortly after leaving the new port of Kyrenia en route to the Turkish port of Tasucu at a little after midday on August 30, with 259 passengers and eight crew members on board. Shortly after the accident, a total of nine people – the ferry’s captain, Mustafa Oz, seven members of its crew, and one director of its operating company, Filo Denizcilik – were arrested, and all nine remain in custody, with court proceedings against them ongoing. The nine defendants most recently appeared in court last Friday, when it was heard that the Turkish Cypriot authorities were not informed about a crack which had appeared on the ferry’s left side on June 17, despite both Oz and Filo Denizcilik having been obliged to inform the authorities. Previously, it had been said in court that the captain Oz had bought his Honduran captain’s licence for $3,500. A police representative said at the time that 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 10 years. The Cyprus Mail has contacted Honduras’ directorate-general of merchant maritime in an attempt to verify the authenticity of the licence.