A twenty-second body was recovered from the sea off the coast of Kyrenia as search operations continue following the sinking of a passenger ferry off the town’s coast in August, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel said on Tuesday.

He said that efforts are now underway to identify the body. A total of six people now remain unaccounted for after the accident, which occurred shortly after midday on August 30, with the ferry having set sail from the new port of Kyrenia to the Turkish port of Tasucu with 259 passengers and eight members of crew on board.

Following the disaster, a total of nine people – the boat’s captain, now named as Mustafa Oz, seven members of his crew, and one representative of its operating company, Filo Denizcilik – were arrested, with all nine remaining in custody.

They most recently appeared in court on Friday, with it having been said at a previous hearing that a crack had appeared on the side of the boat almost two months before it sank on August 30 and that, according to photographs recovered from the first mate’s mobile phone, the repairs were carried out on June 17.

Those repairs were done by Oz and the boat’s crew, with the court hearing that they were carried out at a port in Cyprus, but that the Turkish Cypriot authorities were not informed, despite Oz and Filo Denizcilik being obliged to inform them under such circumstances.

The repairs were carried out just 15 days after Istanbul-based ship classification firm Turk Loydu had certified the boat as seaworthy.

However, while the certificate issued by Turk Loydu states the certificate is valid until 2029, its online database states that the certificate is “invalid”. It is unclear whether the certificate was declared invalid before or after the ferry sank on August 30.

Questions remain over ship’s certificate, captain’s licence

The Cyprus Mail has reached out to Turk Loydu, while the Turkish Cypriot police last month said that they, too, are awaiting a response from the firm regarding the procedures undertaken during the ferry’s examination.

On this matter, Turkish Cypriot ‘transport minister’ Faiz Sucuoglu had suggested that the ferry had been involved in an unreported “minor accident” prior to its sinking, and asked, “what fault does Turk Loydu have here?”.

However, a police representative told the court on Friday on this matter that “no such evidence has been found”.

Previously, it had been said in court that Oz had bought his Honduran captain’s licence for $3,500. A police representative said at the time that Oz had said under questioning that he had initially obtained a licence in Turkey, but that it had become invalid after he did not work as a boat captain for ten years.

The Cyprus Mail has contacted Honduras’ directorate-general of merchant maritime in an attempt to verify the authenticity of the licence.