Bangladeshi sailor among 10 rescued from drone-hit oil tanker off Bulgarian coast
The rescued sailors were flown to a naval base and later taken to a medical centre for examinations. Once declared fit, they were moved to a local hotel.
The weeklong ordeal of ten crew members stranded on the drone-damaged oil tanker MT Kairos near the Bulgarian coast ended Monday morning (8 December) after a Bulgarian Coast Guard team airlifted them to safety.
Mahfuzul Islam Plabon, a Bangladeshi 4th engineer on board, said a rescue helicopter reached the tanker around 9:15am local time and evacuated seven crew members in the first trip due to limited space. Speaking to The Business Standard over WhatsApp, he said the remaining three were picked up shortly.
The rescued sailors were flown to a naval base and later taken to a medical centre for examinations. Once declared fit, they were moved to a local hotel.
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Plabon said the Coast Guard first attempted a rescue on Sunday evening but heavy rain forced the helicopter to turn back.
The Chinese-owned MT Kairos was struck by Ukrainian drones in the Black Sea on 28 November. International reports earlier described the vessel as part of Russia's "shadow fleet". All 25 crew members, including four Bangladeshis, were initially rescued the same night by Turkish authorities and taken to a hotel ashore.
Two days later, the ship's owning firm sent ten of the crew back to the severely damaged tanker, about 30 nautical miles off the Turkish coast, to assess and salvage it. When the tanker was later towed near Istanbul anchorage on 1 December, the tugboat left after the crew failed to drop anchor because the power system was down. The powerless vessel then drifted into Bulgarian waters, leaving the crew stuck in worsening weather.
Over the past several days, they repeatedly called Bulgarian authorities for help but received no response, according to Plabon.
"It was basically a dead ship, burned out after the drone strike," said Captain Anam Chowdhury, president of the Bangladesh Merchant Marine Officers Association in Chattogram, who had been in contact with international bodies and with Plabon throughout the ordeal.
The other three Bangladeshi, Ajgar Hossain, Al Amin Hossain and Habibur Rahman, rescued on the night of the attack have already returned home on Saturday, Chowdhury said.
