As noted by the minister, the drone apparently targeted the engine room of the tanker. “The vessel, registered under a foreign flag and owned by a Turkish company, was loading oil from Russia. After midnight, it sent a signal about an explosion in the engine room to our emergency center,” Uraloglu added.
According to the Turkish Coast Guard Command, the affected tanker was the Altura. A representative of the agency clarified that the crew did not request evacuation, and the incident has no negative consequences. “The situation is under control, there is no threat to security,” he noted in an interview with TASS.
It is worth reminding that on March 14, the Greek tanker Maran Homer also came under attack from an “unknown object” in the Black Sea. It was outside the territorial waters of Russia and was awaiting permission to enter the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal in Novorossiysk to load oil from Kazakhstan. Greek authorities link this incident to the decision by the U.S. to temporarily allow the sale of Russian oil.
According to NTV, the tanker was carrying 140,000 tons of oil from Russia, with 27 crew members on board, and no one was injured. Emergency response services and the coast guard are operating in the area of the incident.
