Nearly a month after the Filo Jet disaster off Keryneia, the most exhaustive examination yet of the sunken catamaran has brought a devastating answer — but not the one the families were waiting for. Search teams have now entered and examined the wreck from end to end. None of the 13 people still missing were found inside. Meanwhile, another maritime tragedy in the Marmara Sea has left nine sailors missing after their ship sank following a collision.
By the Editorial Team of TLF
For thirteen families waiting for news from the sea, there was no reunion on Friday. There was not even the painful certainty of a body to bury.
Instead, the latest search of the Filo Jet, resting in darkness more than half a kilometre beneath the Mediterranean, has left them facing an even harder question.
If their loved ones are not inside the ship, where are they?
The Wreck Has Now Been Searched
Ünal Üstel, Prime Minister of the internationally unrecognized “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (“TRNC”), said on Friday, September 25, that specialist teams had finally reached every part of the Filo Jet, which lies approximately 554 metres below the surface.
This was not simply another external inspection of the wreck.
Sections of the vessel were cut open so that remotely operated equipment could reach spaces that had previously been inaccessible. According to Üstel, teams examined “every square metre, every bag and every seat.”
No section of the vessel remained beyond their reach.
And yet, no additional bodies were found.
For relatives who had spent weeks hoping that some of the missing might still be inside sealed or inaccessible compartments, the significance of that finding is difficult to overstate. The wreck had represented a place where their loved ones might still be found.
Now that possibility appears to have narrowed dramatically.
Thirteen People Are Still Missing
Filo Jet left Keryneia for Taşucu on Turkey’s southern coast on August 30 with 267 passengers and crew aboard. Shortly after departure, the high-speed catamaran began taking water through its forward section. It sank while attempting to return to port.
Of the 267 people aboard, 239 survived.
Fifteen people are now confirmed dead. Thirteen remain missing.
The most recently recovered victim was 26-year-old Mehmet Bayhan. His body was found inside the wreck on September 19 and was later taken to Nusaybin in southeastern Turkey for burial.
Until this latest operation, families could still hold onto the possibility that others remained somewhere deep inside the vessel.
After the comprehensive search announced on Friday, attention will increasingly have to turn away from the interior of Filo Jet and towards the surrounding sea.
Üstel said the authorities would continue searching.
The Black Box May Hold Some Answers
The teams did, however, bring something important back from the wreck.
They recovered the vessel’s Voyage Data Recorder, or VDR — the maritime equivalent of an aircraft’s black box.
The device has been handed to police. If its data can be successfully retrieved and analysed, it could provide investigators with a much clearer picture of what happened aboard Filo Jet during its final minutes.
That could prove especially important as investigators examine the vessel’s maintenance history and the events preceding the sinking.
More than 320 statements have already been taken as part of the criminal investigation, according to reports from the latest court proceedings. Nine suspects remain in custody.
Among the issues under scrutiny is damage reportedly discovered on the vessel’s forward structure on June 17 and how that damage was subsequently repaired. Photographs and WhatsApp communications concerning the damage and repair have become part of the investigation.
These are elements of an ongoing inquiry. No final technical determination of what caused Filo Jet to sink has yet been announced.
A Search 554 Metres Beneath the Sea
The operation itself has been unusually difficult.
The wreck lies at approximately 554 metres, a depth far beyond conventional diving operations. Human divers could not simply descend to the vessel, enter its compartments and search them.
Turkish naval vessels TCG Işın and TCG Alemdar participated in the operation before the specialist deep-water vessel Optimus Prime joined the effort. Remotely operated vehicles were used to inspect the wreck and eventually penetrate and open sections that could not initially be reached.
Only a day before Friday’s announcement, teams were still focusing on closed compartments and the lower deck.
Those spaces have now been searched.
That is an important technical achievement. For the families, however, it does not bring closure.
It makes the absence of their loved ones even harder to explain.
Another Ship, Another Group of Missing Sailors
The search off Keryneia is not the only unresolved maritime tragedy in Cypriot and Turkish waters.
Just three days after Filo Jet sank, another vessel disappeared beneath the sea.
On September 2, the Turkish-flagged cargo ship Tuğberk İmamoğlu collided with the commercial vessel Alsu approximately 18 nautical miles south of Silivri in the Marmara Sea.
Tuğberk İmamoğlu went down with extraordinary speed. Reports indicate that only about 11 minutes passed between the collision and the vessel disappearing beneath the surface.
Ten sailors were aboard.
The wreck was eventually located close to the collision site at a depth of approximately 720 metres after the Turkish Navy’s TCG Akın deployed sonar and a remotely operated underwater vehicle.
Then, on September 15, came the first confirmed recovery.
A body found roughly five kilometres from the collision area was identified through forensic examination as Yaşar Kayhan, the ship’s first captain.
Nine members of the crew remain missing.
The latest confirmed official reporting says search operations have continued by sea and air, involving the Turkish Coast Guard, the Directorate General of Coastal Safety and the Turkish Naval Forces.
Questions Over the Marmara Collision
The investigation into that disaster is also beginning to reveal troubling details, although the findings remain preliminary.
According to a preliminary expert report carried by DHA, only one officer was on the bridge of Alsu and no dedicated lookout had been assigned.
Investigators have also reported problems involving Tuğberk İmamoğlu’s Automatic Identification System, or AIS, meaning the vessel was not being represented normally through the electronic ship-tracking system.
The preliminary report further said that Tuğberk İmamoğlu turned to starboard during the final half-mile, crossing Alsu’s bow and contributing operationally to the collision.
These findings should not be read as a final determination of legal responsibility. The investigation remains ongoing.
Two Wrecks, Twenty-Two People Still Missing
Two ships sank in Turkish waters within the space of three days.
Off Keryneia, 13 people remain missing from Filo Jet.
In the Marmara Sea, nine sailors remain missing from Tuğberk İmamoğlu.
Twenty-two people have still not been brought home.
But the Keryneia disaster has now entered an especially painful phase.
For almost four weeks, the wreck itself held out the possibility of an answer. Specialist teams travelled to a place no ordinary diver could reach. Machines descended through more than 500 metres of water, entered the broken catamaran, opened inaccessible sections and searched through seats, bags and compartments.
They recovered the black box.
They did not find the missing thirteen.
The data retrieved from the vessel may eventually help investigators explain why Filo Jet sank.
For the families still waiting on shore, however, that is only one of the questions that matter.
The other is painfully simple.
Where are their loved ones?
Photo: AI
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