Two dead and 11 rescued after grain ship sinks off Romania following suspected drone hit

Incident in the Black Sea

On the morning of 5 October 2026, the commercial cargo vessel Royad Mammadov caught fire and began sinking in the Black Sea off the coast of Romania. The vessel, a grain carrier measuring approximately 140 meters in length, operates under the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis and is Turkish-owned. It had departed from the Ukrainian Danube port of Izmail and was en route to Ravenna, Italy, carrying agricultural cargo. Emergency alerts reached Romanian border police and maritime authorities at approximately 11:00 local time after an explosion occurred on board. The incident took place within Romania's exclusive economic zone, roughly 20 nautical miles from the mainland coast and nine nautical miles southeast of the Pescăruș offshore drilling platform operated by OMV Petrom.

Emergency rescue operations

The Constanța Maritime Coordination Centre mobilized rescue units immediately upon receiving distress calls from the crew. Units from the Romanian Coast Guard, the Romanian Agency for Saving Life at Sea, and the General Inspectorate of Aviation converged on the coordinates roughly 40 nautical miles from Constanța. Aerial teams deployed a specialized helicopter to winch injured crew members directly from the water and damaged deck areas for emergency medical evacuation. Rescuers faced rising smoke and flames as they worked to extract crew members from the deteriorating vessel. The Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs released footage and images showing the helicopter hoist operation during the response.

The helicopter from the General Aviation Inspectorate took over, by winching, the injured persons in order to provide emergency medical assistance. The mission is dynamic, with Coast Guard ships and the General Aviation Inspectorate helicopter carrying out specific activities.

Casualties and vessel loss

Initial casualty assessments provided by the Romanian Naval Authority indicated that the ship's captain had suffered injuries and that 13 crew members were unaccounted for in the water. As search operations progressed across the surrounding waters, emergency personnel managed to pull survivors aboard response vessels and aircraft. The Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs later confirmed that the cargo ship had sunk following the fire, updating the confirmed human toll from the incident.

During the rescue operation, 11 crew members were saved, two people are dead.

The 11 surviving sailors were transported for emergency medical treatment, while search teams recovered the bodies of the two deceased crew members. The vessel went down entirely following the explosion and subsequent fire outside Romanian territorial waters.

Suspected drone strike and Black Sea security

Romanian media reports indicated that the Royad Mammadov had been struck by a drone, with some unofficial local accounts suggesting the involvement of two or three aerial or maritime drones. The Romanian Naval Authority confirmed the fire, explosion, and sinking, while noting that an investigation into the precise cause of the blast remains in progress. The incident occurred in a maritime corridor where commercial shipping has faced persistent security threats since the start of hostilities in the region. Romanian authorities continue to monitor maritime traffic and offshore installations in the area, including energy infrastructure. On the same day, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it had targeted two other transport vessels in the Black Sea, alleging that those ships were carrying military equipment.