The crew of the container ship CONTSHIP JET was warned between 40 and 60 minutes before it was struck by maritime drones off Kaliakra. The alert was issued by the French Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft both to the sailors on board and to the Regional Coordination Center in Varna.
This was reported to Maritime.bg by the commander of the French aircraft, who wished to remain anonymous. According to him, the crew detected the threat and immediately passed the information to the Bulgarian authorities and the ship.
“We managed to warn the motor vessel CONTSHIP JET about the threat, which appeared to be directed at it. We also managed to warn the RCC in Varna about the presence of drones in this area of responsibility,” the commander said.However, the French aircraft had no capability to stop the attack. “We are detection assets only. We are not capable of intercepting them,” the military aviator explained.
The warning was issued before the strike
The primary task of the Atlantique 2 crew was to give the sailors time to prepare. The commander said instructions had been relayed on board for the crew to prepare for the strike and for no one to remain in the engine room.
“What we managed to do was warn the ship about the danger. We managed to tell them to prepare for the strike and for no one to be in the engine room,” he said.Asked whether the warning had been issued 40 to 60 minutes before the incident, the commander replied: “Yes, more or less.”
After the coordinated strike involving three maritime drones, the aircraft remained over the area and took part in the rescue operation. The work was carried out in coordination with the Regional Coordination Center in Varna, Bulgarian patrol vessels and military air traffic control. All 18 crew members were rescued.
The ship sank about 16 nautical miles from Kaliakra
CONTSHIP JET was sailing under the Liberian flag from Haifa to Constanța carrying 700 TEU. The attack was carried out on October 28, about 16 nautical miles from Cape Kaliakra. There were 14 Filipinos and four Ukrainians on board. After the evacuation, the vessel sank.
According to the Ministry of Defence, the alert about the incident was forwarded to the Navy Operations Center. The Sofia Military District Prosecutor’s Office opened pre-trial proceedings into the attack.
The subsequent explanation given by the Bulgarian institutions for the lack of a response was that the attack had taken place in the contiguous zone. This claim has been challenged by experts in maritime law, while Maritime.bg cited as a comparison cases in which the Romanian Air Force had destroyed floating drones in Romania’s exclusive economic zone.
The Atlantique 2 is a twin-engine turboprop aircraft of the French Navy used for maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare. The aircraft can detect threats and transmit data in real time, but it does not carry munitions for neutralizing maritime drones.
Sources: vesti.bg, maritime.bg