The fifteenth body recovered from the wreckage of the ferry that sank off the coast of Kyrenia last month has been identified as Mehmet Bayhan, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel said on Monday.
Ustel stressed that “since the very moment the accident occurred, all relevant institutions have been working with great sensitivity and determination to locate the missing individuals, complete identification procedures as quickly as possible, and put an end to the uncertainty faced by their families.”
Following the recovery and identification of Bayhan’s body, the number of people still missing stands at 13. Saturday’s recovery also marked the first time a body had been located in almost two weeks, following the recovery of the fourteenth victim on September 6.
Bayhan’s body was the first to be recovered since the arrival on Monday of the deep-sea research and survey vessel Optimus Prime in waters off Kyrenia. The vessel was commissioned by the Turkish government and the Turkish Cypriot authorities to assist the two Turkish naval vessels already involved in the search operation, the TCG Isin and the TCG Alemdar.
The two naval vessels have been stationed off Kyrenia since the beginning of September, with additional support requested after Ustel said on September 6 that, “as the days pass, the conditions for the search-and-rescue operation, especially underwater and inside the sunken boat, are becoming increasingly difficult.”
The ferry capsized shortly after departing from the new port of Kyrenia on August 30, while travelling towards the Turkish port of Tasucu. The vessel was carrying 259 passengers and eight crew members when it sank shortly after midday.
All eight crew members, including the ferry’s captain, Mustafa Oz, were arrested on the day of the disaster. All eight crew members, along with a director of the ferry’s operating company, Filo Denizcilik, remain in custody.
The suspects most recently appeared before a court on Friday, when a police representative told proceedings that, after a crack was discovered in the vessel in June, it had undergone only “superficial” repairs.
Earlier court proceedings had also heard that captain Oz had purchased his Honduran captain’s licence for $3,500. A police representative said at the time that Oz had told investigators he had originally obtained a captain’s licence in Turkey, but that it had subsequently become invalid after he failed to work as a boat captain for a period of 10 years.