Tanker captain arrested over cargo ship sinking off Istanbul

Istanbul - The captain of an oil tanker that hit a cargo ship that sank in waters off Istanbul, leaving 10 missing, has been arrested along with his third officer, media reports said on Sept 4.The pair were formally arrested by a court late on Sept 3, a day after the pre-dawn collision in which the ALSU, an empty oil tanker, struck the Tugberk Imamoglu, a cargo vessel carrying rolled steel, in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul.The court in Silivri, on the western edge of Istanbul province near where the collision occurred, ordered their arrest, but there no immediate details on the charges, with four other suspects granted conditional release, Turkey’s DHA news agency said.Officials said the damaged cargo ship sank “very quickly” in waters about 900m deep, some 18 nautical miles off Silivri, leaving all 10 crew members missing.Although rescuers have yet to recover the Tugberk Imamoglu’s voyage data recorder (VDR) – its “black box” – an expert report prepared for Silivri prosecutor’s said there had been multiple breaches of safety procedures aboard the tanker.“The fundamental root cause... resulting in a catastrophe, was the deficiencies and failures on the bridge of the M/T ALSU,” the report said, a copy of which was seen by AFP on Sept 3.It also pointed to shortcomings on the part of the cargo ship.Search and rescue operations continued on Sept 4.Anadolu state news agency said nine ALSU crew members, excluding the cook, had been detained and questioned by police, six of whom had appeared in court on Sept 3. AFP