Bulgaria reported a navigation hazard in the Black Sea after the container vessel Contship Jet sank, leaving more than 20 containers adrift, some carrying dangerous goods.
The Bulgarian VTMIS navigation warning records the sinking at 4:30 p.m. EDT (20:30 UTC) on Oct. 28. Bulgaria’s navigation warning said the wreck and drifting containers posed an immediate danger to navigation and urged vessels to use extreme caution.
The Bulgarian Ministry of Defence said the Liberia-flagged ship was attacked 17 nautical miles east of Cape Kaliakra, inside Bulgaria’s Black Sea exclusive economic zone. The ministry said a surface drone struck the vessel and surveillance systems recorded three impacts.
The Bulgarian Ministry of Transport and Communications said the ship was traveling from Haifa, Israel, to Constanța, Romania, with 421 containers, based on information from the crew. All 18 crew members were rescued. The warning identified dangerous-goods categories among the cargo that went adrift.
Euronews published images on Nov. 2 that it said showed sea drones targeting the ship. The Associated Press and Euronews have described the sinking as the fifth drone attack recorded in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone that month.
The Military District Prosecutor’s Office – Sofia opened a pretrial investigation on Oct. 29. It said investigators still needed to determine the ship’s ownership, cargo, crew composition, route and full extent of the damage.
Prime Minister Rumen Radev said a French patrol aircraft detected drones about 30 minutes before the strike and relayed their flight path, allowing the crew to evacuate. He said the drone’s origin was still being examined, adding, “I expect us finally to have an answer and clear evidence of who is carrying out these attacks.”
Defense ministers from Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey met in Sofia on Oct. 28 and agreed to improve information sharing, situational awareness and early-warning capabilities. The Bulgarian Ministry of Defence said further talks were planned in Bucharest at the political level and in Ankara among military experts, without announcing dates.
