Seven crew missing after ship catches fire off Romania’s coast

Seven of the 12 people aboard the Wine Trader were still missing after a fire broke out on the vessel off Romania’s Black Sea coast on Thursday, the Romanian Naval Authority said. Five crew members were rescued. The San Marino-flagged ship sent a distress alert at about 07:00, roughly 13 nautical miles (24km) south-east of Sulina, near the mouth of the Danube. [1]

Early Romanian reports put the toll at eight missing and four accounted for. The later figure of seven missing followed the rescue of a fifth crew member; both counts refer to the same 12 people aboard. [7] [1]

The captain told the ship’s operator that a drone had struck the crew accommodation and started the fire, according to a preliminary account from San Marino’s ship registry republished by GiornaleSM. He said two more drones struck during efforts to fight the blaze, and that seven crew members had not answered a roll call. [2]

Romanian President Nicușor Dan said drones had hit the Wine Trader and the Yara J, another vessel that caught fire in the area the previous day. He did not identify who launched them. Romania’s defence ministry separately reported detecting a drone near Sulina earlier on Thursday, but did not link that sighting to the Wine Trader. [4] [6] [3]

The naval authority said the Wine Trader had no cargo aboard. Moscow said two unnamed ships carrying military cargo towards Odesa had been hit, but did not identify the Wine Trader as one of them. [1] [4]

The five rescued crew were flown to Constanța, a naval authority spokeswoman told Radio România Constanța. A hospital spokeswoman said one remained in hospital with superficial burns, while the other four did not need to be admitted. High waves were making the search for the seven missing crew difficult.