A fourteenth body has been recovered from the wreckage of a ferry which sank off the coast of Kyrenia, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel said on Sunday.
He said the body was that of a male, aged between 55 and 60 years old.
At present, 14 people remain unaccounted for, with efforts ongoing to recover their bodies from the wreckage, with Ustel saying that “search-and-rescue operations are continuing seven days a week, 24 hours a day to locate the remaining missing persons”.
Earlier in the day, he had explained that “as the days pass, the conditions for the search-and-rescue operation, especially underwater and inside the sunken boat, are becoming increasingly difficult”, with relatives of those missing having gathered outside the new port of Kyrenia for the eighth successive day awaiting news of their loved ones.
He added that “despite all the difficulties, our teams working from the air, sea, underwater, and on land are continuing their work without interruption”, and stressed that “we have only one goal: to reach all our missing loved ones”.
“Therefore, while our current efforts are ongoing, we are also pursuing initiatives to utilise new resources and alternative methods,” he said, adding to this end that “we have already initiated certain efforts in this regard”.
On this front, he said that “technical personnel from experienced private organisations are currently conducting the necessary investigations in the area where the accident occurred and on the wreck, preparing their preliminary reports”.
Additionally, he said that he will travel to Istanbul on Monday “to discuss the reports prepared by these specialised organisations”, which he said are “experienced in deep-sea wreck searching and ship salvage operations”.
“We will jointly evaluate the steps which can be taken to reach our missing bed ons, to continue the work inside the ship, or to salvage the wreck,” he said.
After those meetings, he said, he will also meet with “senior officials from the boat’s insurance company” so as to “assess the situation and discuss how the process will proceed from now on”.
He said that he will then travel to Ankara to hold “high-level meetings”, in which he and Turkish officials “will evaluate the current situation, the reports received, and the steps which can be taken from now on”, before he will return to Cyprus and “share the roadmap for the coming period with the families of the missing and with the public”.
“As prime minister, my greatest responsibility is to utilise all the resources our state can use to reach our missing loved ones. We will leave no room for doubt, and no room to ask ourselves ‘could we have tried this?’. In addition to the state’s resources, we will utilise every technical capacity and new method available to the fullest extent,” he said.
The ferry capsized shortly after leaving the new port of Kyrenia en route to the Turkish port of Tasucu on August 30, with 259 passengers and eight crew members on board. In addition to the 14 people who are confirmed to have died and the 14 who remain missing, one person remains in hospital as a result of the accident.
All eight members of the crew were arrested on the day of the disaster, and all eight remain in custody, having appeared in court most recently on Thursday.
There, a police representative said that Oz had bought his Honduran captain’s licence for $3,500 after having made contact with “some people in Greece”, with his original Turkish licence having expired following a 10-year hiatus from the industry.
Additionally, it was claimed that the Turkish port of Tasucu, the ferry’s planned destination, had been closed on Sunday following storms in the region, and was due to remain closed until 3pm that day, but that Oz decided to set sail “regardless” at midday.
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