Drone Strikes Tanker Carrying Russian Oil Near Turkey
A drone struck a sanctioned tanker carrying Russian oil near the Bosphorus on Thursday. All 27 crew members are safe after the early morning explosion.
A marine drone struck a crude oil tanker carrying cargo from Russia in the Black Sea on Thursday, causing an explosion near the entrance to the Bosphorus strait. The vessel, identified as the Altura, was positioned approximately 18 nautical miles from the critical shipping channel when the incident occurred. Turkey immediately dispatched its coastguard to assist the ship, which had departed from the port of Novorossiysk with approximately 1 million barrels of crude oil.
The Altura is a Sierra Leone-flagged tanker that is currently subject to sanctions by the European Union and the United Kingdom. While the vessel is managed by the Turkish firm Pergamon Denizcilik, its registered owner is the China-based Sea Grace Shipping Ltd. Despite the damage to the vessel, transportation officials confirmed that all 27 crew members on board were unharmed following the blast.
