Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait was closed to ship traffic Tuesday after a cargo ship ran into a shoreside villa.
The accident occurred at 12:58 p.m. Tuesday when the 106-meter Sierra Leone-flagged Majed & Randy slammed into the villa near Istanbul’s Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge after experiencing a rudder malfunction.
GAC Shipping said that cargo ship had no pilot on board at the time of the allision.
Turkey’s General Directorate of Coast Safety dispatched two tugs and pilot for assistance. The cargo ship remains at anchor in the general vicinity of the accident.
There were no reports of pollution or injuries.
The Strait was due to re-open a few hours late at 15:30 local time, GAC shipping said.
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Cargo Ship Slams into Bosphorus Strait Villa
The 6,476 ton vessel is owned by Farah-M Shipping and flagged in Sierra Leone. The Bosphorus Strait is the world’s narrowest waterway used for commercial marine traffic and it forms the boundary between Asia and Europe. It is the only maritime outlet for Russian oil and other commodities from the Black Sea. An estimated 10,000 oil tankers carry about 150 million tons of petroleum products through the strait each year.
The Coast Guard deployed tugboats and a pilot to assist the M/V Majed and Randy, which remained anchored in the area of the collision. There are no immediately plans to re-open the strait at this time. There were no injuries due to the allision incident.
During the Crimea – Russian conflict in July 2014, the M/V Majed and Randy was docked at a Sevastopol grain terminal. According to Russian authorities Crimea was exporting grain to Saudi Arabia and Northern Cyprus, which was against E.U. sanctions
IMO: 8000305
Name: Majed and Randy
MMSI: 667002231
Type: General Cargo
Gross Tonnage: 3905
Summer DWT: 6476 t
Build: 1980
Flag: Sierra Leone
Home port: Freetown
