Overview
- The Altura, which was struck early Thursday, suffered bridge damage and flooding in its engine room about 14–18 nautical miles north of the Bosporus, and all 27 Turkish crew members were unhurt.
- Turkey’s transport minister said an unmanned sea vehicle targeted the engine room in a deliberate attempt to disable the ship, and investigators have not identified who carried out the attack.
- The Suezmax-class tanker was carrying roughly 1 million barrels of Russian Urals crude from Novorossiysk and is listed under EU, U.K., Swiss, and Ukrainian sanctions as part of the so-called shadow fleet.
- Turkish authorities dispatched coast guard boats, tugboats, technical teams, and the Nene Hatun rescue ship to the Sierra Leone-flagged, Turkish-operated vessel to stabilize it and assess damage.
- The incident follows a series of unmanned strikes on vessels hauling Russian energy, including the March 3 Arctic Metagaz case in the Mediterranean, raising concerns over navigation, insurance costs, and spill risk near narrow sea lanes.