Kyrenia Ferry Disaster: Surveyors Say Hull Was Already Cracked; Liability May Reach Company Boardroom

The high-speed catamaran Filo Jet, which capsized off Cyprus shortly after leaving Kyrenia (Girne) for Taşucu, Mersin, with 259 passengers and eight crew, appears to have sailed with structural damage sustained days before the accident, according to insurance surveyors cited by the Turkish daily Hürriyet. Eight people died and 18 remain missing.

Loss adjusters appointed by the vessel's hull and P&I underwriters told Hürriyet that the cracks that sank the ship were not opened on the day of the disaster. Days earlier, the ferry had been driven through a storm in roughly 30 knots of wind and waves of four to four-and-a-half metres — conditions the surveyors say were well beyond the three-metre limit for a composite-hulled fast craft. They claim to hold video showing damage to the deck structure from that earlier passage, and allege the master and crew put to sea regardless.

The surveyors' reconstruction is that seawater filled the void space beneath the passenger saloon, surfacing around the cabin stanchions. Rather than stopping to disembark passengers, they say, the master put the helm hard to starboard; the trapped water surged to one side and the vessel rolled over. A catamaran can normally survive flooding in one hull. The vessel, built in France in 2001 and bought two years ago by Mersin-based Filo Denizcilik, had been refitted at the Akdeniz shipyard in Alexandretta (İskenderun), and specialists described its condition as sound.

Hürriyet also examined reports on two earlier catamaran casualties, the Condor 10 at Wellington in 1998 and the Ocean Lala off Taiwan, both attributed to "wet-deck slamming" — the violent impact of a swell wave against the underdeck bridging the two hulls. Long-period swell persists after a storm has passed, and fibre-composite structures crack easily under repeated slamming.

The legal exposure may extend well past the bridge. Assoc. Prof. Emete Gözügüzelli, a maritime lawyer at Ankara Social Sciences University, told Hürriyet that if the weather warnings and the vessel's condition were known in advance, accepting the risk amounts to gross negligence. Should the company have concealed technical reports, tolerated irregular crew certification or skipped maintenance, criminal liability could reach management and the board. She added that a master cannot plead company pressure: maritime law grants him the right to refuse orders and the duty to protect life.

Allegations that crew jumped first and that doors were locked, she said, would be aggravating factors. Claims can be filed in the internationally unrecognized TRNC; P&I cover is capped at 15 million lira per fatality.