The cargo ship LARISSA 1 was struck by an unmanned aerial vehicle in Romania’s territorial waters. One of its cargo cranes was damaged in the strike, but no crew members were injured, Romanian authorities said.
The incident occurred at around 21:40 on 13 November. The ship is sailing under the flag of Palau and is the second confirmed merchant vessel to be struck in Romania’s territorial waters.
The ship remained at anchor
LARISSA 1 is a general cargo ship built in 1999, with a deadweight of 17,064 tonnes. According to Maritime.bg, the vessel is owned and operated by companies based in Turkey.
The ship arrived in the area around seven days before the incident after sailing from Bizerte, Tunisia. Its declared route was from Bizerte, via the roadstead off Sulina, to Ukraine.
Following the attack, LARISSA 1 remained at anchor in Romanian waters. The latest reported location data is from 12:30 on 14 November. At that time, the ship was approximately 7.4 nautical miles, or 13.8 kilometres, from Sfântu Gheorghe.
Two F-16s took off from Fetești
On Saturday morning, the radar system of Romania’s Ministry of National Defence detected an aerial target in the area of Snake Island. Two F-16 fighter jets on combat alert took off from the 86th Air Base in Fetești.
The National Military Command Centre notified the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations so that measures could be taken to warn residents in the eastern part of Tulcea County. The first message was sent via the RO-Alert system at 04:45, followed by a second warning for the northern part of the county at 05:39. The air-raid alert was cancelled at 05:52.
During his visit to Constanța, Minister of National Defence Ștefan-Radu Oprea stated that “institutional cooperation between the Naval Forces, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Coast Guard is functioning successfully”. He also said that the Romanian Naval Forces and the Border Police conduct regular joint patrols in the country’s exclusive economic zone.
The published information does not specify who carried out the attack on LARISSA 1.
Sources: nova.bg, maritime.bg, agerpres.ro