ROV deployed to locate sunken cargo ship crew

BURSA

The search for five of the six missing crew on board Batuhan A cargo ship that sank off in the Marmara Sea continues with an unmanned underwater robot.

Considering the possibility that the crew may have been thrown overboard, the teams are conducting their searches both above and underwater.

Teams conducting day-long reconnaissance with 4 boats from above the sea are imaging and scanning the area with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). The ROV can bring the elements detected underwater to the surface of the sea with the help of the gripper arm in the mechanism attached to it.

The teams prepared the robot at a predetermined point, which descended to a depth of 60 meters in the sea with the control of personnel. However, there was no sign of the crew.

Approximately 1,000 personnel including search and rescue teams from the Naval Forces Command, the Coast Guard Command, the Directorate General of Coastal Safety, AFAD, JAK, JÖH, maritime police, NAK, AKUT, ANDA, IHH and municipalities are participating in the search activities.

Bursa Governor Mahmut Demirtaş shared that divers dove into the shipwreck for the eighth time on Feb. 19 and said, "They will try to enter the engine room of the ship and continue the search activity there."

Demirtaş stated that search and scanning activities have also accelerated on the coast of Balıkesir and added, "Drones are being used to scan the coast. Search activities continue with great care by airplanes and helicopters from the air, teams on land and boats from the sea."

The 69-meter-long cargo ship Batuhan A., which departed from Marmara Island of Balıkesir on Feb. 14 with a crew of six people and a cargo of 1250 tons of marble powder, sank 4 miles off the coast of Karacabey district in Bursa province on Feb. 15 due to bad weather and sea conditions.

During the works carried out with imaging devices, it was determined that the wreckage of the ship sat on the bottom of the sea at a depth of 51 meters.

The lifeless body of 33-year-old Zeynep Kılınç, who worked as a cook on the ship, was found during two dives carried out by divers of the Naval Forces Command on Feb. 17.