Fire on ship in Black Sea off Romania leaves eight crew missing amid drone attack fears
Romanian authorities said 12 people were aboard the ship when a fire broke out on the morning of Thursday, 15 October. Four are safe and unharmed, and the cause of the blaze has not been established.
The fire
Romanian authorities said a fire broke out on the morning of Thursday, 15 October, on a ship flying the flag of San Marino in the Black Sea. The Romanian Naval Authority said 12 people were on board, that four were safe and unharmed, and that eight were missing. The authority did not say whether the vessel had been struck by a drone or whether an accident had started the blaze, so the cause remains unconfirmed.
Rescue and the vessel
Romanian rescuers went to help the tanker Yara J, which flies the flag of the Comoros, on Wednesday evening off Sulina, close to the Ukrainian border. According to VesselFinder, the Yara J carries petroleum and chemical products. Defence Minister Radu Miruta said the crew managed to put out the fire on its own, and that the vessel had been anchored for several days about 8 to 10 nautical miles southeast of the Sulina canal, inside Romanian territorial waters, and was empty. Reports differ on the flag: some describe the burning ship as the Comoros-flagged tanker, while others describe it as flying the San Marino flag, and the sources do not settle the question.
Drone attacks in the region
Miruta said an investigation has been opened whether or not the vessel was hit by a drone, calling the case very serious because such incidents are occurring in Romanian territorial waters. Drones reportedly launched from Russia have struck several ships off Romania and Bulgaria since the previous week. One report counts five commercial ships hit off the two countries since early October, with about 23 seafarers killed or missing. Another reports that a drone attack on two ships off Bulgaria on Tuesday, 13 October, caused one of them to sink, with 11 sailors missing as of Thursday.
- Drone attack on two ships off Bulgaria, one of which sank
- Rescuers go to the tanker Yara J off Sulina in the evening
- Fire breaks out on a San Marino-flagged ship with 12 aboard, eight missing
Why the waterway matters
The Sulina canal of the Danube is a key route for Ukrainian grain exports. The fire in Romanian waters came after a Russian attack on Ukraine overnight, according to one report. Search and rescue operations were still under way when the reports were published.
