The ferry that sank off the Kyrenia coast on Sunday, causing the deaths of at least eight people, had crashed 12 years ago, the Turkish Cypriot Kyrenia district court heard on Monday as 14 people arrested in the accident’s aftermath appeared before it.

A police representative explained the details of the incident, saying the number of passengers aboard “did not exceed” the boat’s capacity, and it was technically capable of cruising through waves of up to three metres in height.

The Turkish Cypriot met office had said conditions were suitable for ferry crossings on Sunday ahead of the boat setting sail, he added.

He said the boat had crashed 12 years ago and then been repaired in Turkey before being bought by its current operator, Filo Denizcilik, in 2024.

In addition, he confirmed, as the north’s ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli had said on Sunday, that the boat had been declared seaworthy following an examination carried out by Istanbul-based ship classification firm Turk Loydu in June.

Part of the wreckage seen in the sea on Monday (Photo: Erol Uysal)

He went on to tell the court that while there were enough lifejackets onboard the boat when it set sail from Kyrenia, the crew were insufficiently informed about their number and whereabouts, and that this fact “did not help the evacuation of the boat” when it began to capsize.

The defence lawyer told the court that there were four life rafts on the boat, with a capacity of 100 people each, and that as such, had they been correctly deployed, they would have had a capacity of 400 – far exceeding the number of 259 passengers and eight crew who were on board the boat when it set sail from Kyrenia.

According to newspaper Yeniduzen, later in the proceedings, police inspector Mehmet Mannas told the court that the ship’s captain and crew had been arrested on suspicion of causing death by recklessness, and said that 239 people had been confirmed to have been brought to shore alive since the boat sank.

Nine of the 14 defendants were remanded in custody for three days. The remaining three were released.

The ferry capsized shortly after leaving the new port of Kyrenia at around 12.10pm on Sunday en route to the Turkish port of Tasucu.

Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel promised on Sunday evening that “every aspect of this incident will be investigated” and that “even the slightest negligence will be uncovered”.

“It is both the duty and the responsibility of our state to fully investigate this great tragedy… Our grief is immense today, but our state, with all its institutions, is fulfilling its duty,” he said.

As such, he added, “we are now focused with all our strength on reaching our missing loved ones, healing our wounds, and uncovering the full truth of this great tragedy”.

Search-and-rescue operations were continuing off the coast of Kyrenia on Monday, with both boats and helicopters having been deployed to the area.

The presence of helicopters north of Kyrenia caused passenger flights out of the north’s Tymbou (Ercan) airport to reroute over the south of Nicosia, rather than taking their typical route north over Kyrenia and towards Turkey.

As such, residents of the southern half of the capital have been able to see and hear low-flying passenger aircraft above them both on Sunday and Monday.