Freighter Sinks Off Bulgarian Coast After Drone Boat Strike
All 18 crew members were safely rescued before the container ship went down in the Black Sea with hazardous materials on board.
A container ship sank off the coast of Bulgaria late on October 28 after being struck three times by drone boats in the Black Sea. The vessel, named the Contship Jet, went under around midnight roughly 21 nautical miles southeast of Shabla, according to Bulgarian maritime authorities who confirmed the loss on October 29.
The ship was traveling from Haifa, Israel, to Constanta, Romania, carrying 421 containers when the emergency began. Dimitar Stoyanov noted that the incident occurred outside Bulgarian territorial waters but inside the nation's exclusive economic zone. Romania's maritime rescue center in Constanta issued an alert that reached Bulgaria at 12:01 p.m. local time on October 28.
The crew evacuated the vessel rapidly, completing the abandonment process in just 12 minutes by 12:13 p.m. The 18 sailors on board, consisting of 14 Filipinos and four Ukrainians, all survived without injuries. By 12:53 p.m., eight of the sailors were safely aboard a Bulgarian Navy boat, while the remaining ten occupied the ship's own lifeboat.
The Bulgarian Navy responded by deploying the corvette Reshitelni, the rescue vessel Proteo, and a fast boat, alongside a vessel from the Border Police. A Navy ship subsequently transported the rescued crew to the port of Varna. The Contship Jet, a 524-foot vessel built in Spain nearly two decades ago, drifted for hours before sinking.
At the time of the sinking, the ship was carrying a diverse cargo that included lithium-ion batteries, acids and other corrosives, ethanol, flammable liquids, household chemicals, plastics, food, building supplies, lumber, and machinery parts. Kiril Mihaylov reported that evening that approximately 20 containers had already fallen overboard into the sea before the ship finally went under.
Bulgaria's Environment Ministry stated that the vessel was transporting cargo destined for a NATO port. Although the ship operated on marine gas oil and carried hazardous materials, the Maritime Administration stated that it does not expect any potential spill to reach the Bulgarian coastline.
The sinking of the Contship Jet marks the fifth merchant vessel to be struck by drones within Bulgaria's exclusive economic zone since early October. Authorities are currently assessing the environmental and structural impacts of the wreck, while questions regarding who launched the drone boats and the specific motivation behind the attack remain unanswered.