Rescuers recovered the bodies of two women off northern Cyprus on the morning of September 4, 2026, raising to 12 the confirmed death toll from the ferry Filo Jet, which capsized on Sunday, August 30, and leaving 16 people still unaccounted for. “The bodies of two more people have been recovered,” Unal Ustel, prime minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), wrote on X. “Search operations.. are continuing 24/7 in order to reach our 16 missing people,” he said. A Turkish navy salvage ship carrying a remotely operated vehicle and an atmospheric diving suit had taken station over the wreck on Tuesday afternoon, September 1.
Filo Denizcilik operated the 42.8-meter (140-foot) catamaran, which went down minutes after pulling out of the new port of Kyrenia, also known as Girne, in the TRNC on a run to Tasucu in Turkey’s Mersin province. There were 267 people aboard — 259 passengers and eight crew — almost all of them Turkish or Turkish Cypriot.
Of those on board, 239 reached shore alive, a figure revised down after two people first listed as rescued turned out to be missing instead. Earlier counts had put survivors at 241, and in a first account given to broadcaster TRT, Ustel put the number at 237. Through the opening days of the search the tally of the missing climbed from 17 to 18 and then to 20 — two of them from northern Cyprus, the other 18 Turkish citizens. Children are among them.
Salvage Ships Work Over the Wreck
The wreck lies in about 514 meters (roughly 1,690 feet) of water about four nautical miles off Kyrenia, far deeper than locally available equipment can reach. TCG Isin, a Turkish navy rescue and salvage vessel able to work at depths down to 3,000 meters, has arrived and is joined by TCG Alemdar, with remotely operated vehicles now working inside the hull. A technical team from Turkey’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure has also reached the operation. The tasks include surveying the hull, establishing whether anyone remains inside and bringing up the voyage data recorder, the black box seen as central to explaining what went wrong; as of September 4 it had still not been retrieved.
The first body taken from inside the wreck was brought up by September 3. Ustel said it was a male passenger of about 50.
Nine boats, eight ships, seven helicopters, five unmanned aerial vehicles and a single aircraft were committed to the round-the-clock effort on day three. “Our greatest priority is reaching our missing people,” Ustel said. TRNC President Tufan Erhurman set out the same goal: “Our aim is to reach the wreck in the depths and bring up everything that can be recovered.” He acknowledged that progress had been slower because of the technical complexity.
Cabins are where investigators fear the worst: when the catamaran rolled over, authorities believe, there is a strong chance that passengers unable to escape were shut inside them. Hopes of finding anyone alive were very slim, one Turkish Cypriot official told the Guardian, who added that elderly people and mothers travelling with small children were believed to make up much of the missing list.
Nine in Custody, Captain Among Them
Fourteen people appeared before Judge Hazal Hacimulla at Kyrenia District Court on Monday, August 31. Allegations that carelessness and negligence had caused deaths led the judge to remand nine of them in custody for three days. The group included the ferry’s 66-year-old captain, Mustafa Oz. Also detained were one company official and seven of the captain’s fellow crew members. Five more individuals, port department officials and shareholders in the operator among them, were ordered by the court to be investigated at once. Detention on its own does not establish criminal liability, officials have emphasized.
At a second Kyrenia hearing on September 3, the nine suspects were remanded a further eight days for causing death through carelessness and negligence.
Testimony from assistant police inspector Mehmet Mannas described the tip of the port forward hull section fracturing roughly four miles out of port, with the ferry then taking on water and capsizing. Crew members were warned that water was entering from beneath the vessel, the court heard, yet the crossing went on. Turk Loydu approval and port authority permits were both in place, and a survey had been cleared in June 2026, according to Mannas, who said TRNC authorities had verified that sufficient lifejackets and liferafts were aboard — survivors who described a shortage contradict that account. Turbulent seas broke the bow apart, the crew told the court.
Police investigators said the disaster could have been avoided had the captain reduced speed and turned back when the ferry began taking on water.
The court also heard that Tasucu was closed for weather, that the second captain advised against sailing and the master sailed anyway, and that his certificate had lapsed and was replaced for USD 3,500.
The captain left the profession for 10 years after his licence expired and obtained a new one in Honduras because of difficulties in Turkey, per NTV; he told the court his weather data showed no problem with sailing. Local media say the crew lacked documentation and training.
Fifteen Minutes Out of Kyrenia
Saturday, August 29, had been the original date for the crossing, but weather pushed it back; departure came at about 12:30 p.m. local time (09:30 GMT), roughly an hour behind schedule. Some 7.5 kilometers out, off Diana Beach on the island’s northern coast, water began entering the vessel about 15 minutes later. Two waves struck the boat, Ustel told TRT, the second arriving as the captain tried to recover from the first. Speculation about the cause is unwise while nothing has been officially established, Erhurman said, adding that conditions were not bad.
A noise like an explosion is what survivors recalled, describing a catamaran that moved erratically and slammed down hard on the surface, breaking its bow. Suitcases and belongings strewn across the water appeared in footage that also showed passengers in life vests standing on the overturned hull as helicopters lifted them off. Among the missing are six-year-old Mehmet and 12-year-old Saliha; their mother, Ayten Bicer, said her daughter slipped from her grasp in the chaos. “I lost two of my children,” Bicer told Turkey’s DHA news agency.
Questions Over an Aging Ferry
Marine Traffic lists the Turkish flag for the 26-year-old vessel, which was built around 2000. An accident in Turkey roughly 12 years ago left the ferry damaged, police testified, and the operating permit was issued after its purchase in 2024. An even earlier mishap appears in documents quoted by TRNC media: on October 26, 2003, the ship struck a quay, and serious water ingress followed about 10 days later. The vessel was sold to a Greek company after the 2003 accident and, once repaired, made more than 300 voyages before Filo Denizcilik bought it in 2024. Turk Loydu inspections in March and May 2018 logged 29 deficiencies, said Serhat Akpinar, general secretary of the Democratic Party, who asked whether those were fixed before the vessel was licensed for the Mersin–Kyrenia service.
Ustel dismissed Erhan Arikli, the TRNC minister of public works and transport, on September 2, saying that “in a criminal investigation of this gravity we cannot allow any suspicion to arise.” Arikli’s YDP then quit the coalition. Every Filo Denizcilik sailing from the TRNC has been suspended by the ministry until further notice, and from Tuesday, September 1, the link has been served by Akgunler Denizcilik on a route set by the Coast Guard Command; that same day Pegasus Airlines added four flights between the TRNC and Turkey. Gross negligence charges against all those responsible are likely, Turkish Cypriot officials have said.
No maritime disaster in Cyprus’ history has been worse, in Ustel’s description of the sinking. The Turkish Cypriot Council of Ministers declared three days of national mourning running through Wednesday, September 2, in the territory, which has controlled the northern third of the island since declaring independence in 1983 and is recognized only by Turkey. An offer of €260,000 (£223,000) for the families of the dead and missing came from Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the Anglo-Cypriot founder of easyJet. At Kyrenia’s new port, where relatives gathered for news, Erhurman visited and vowed the search would go on without interruption, day and night.
