Attacked by drone! Greek container ship sinks off Bulgaria, 18 crew members rescued

The Bulgarian government stated that a Greek-owned container ship was attacked by a drone off the coast of Bulgaria on Wednesday (28th) local time. The ship sank after the attack, and all 18 crew members on board were rescued.

"Reuters" reported that the ship that was attacked was the "CONTSHIP JET" flying the Liberian flag. The ship was sailing from Haifa, Israel to Constanța, Romania at the time of the incident. The location where it was attacked was located in the Bulgarian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Contships Management, the company responsible for managing the Contship Jet, later stated that all 14 Filipino crew members and 4 Ukrainian crew members on board were rescued and safely transferred to the Bulgarian port of Varna.

Bulgarian Maritime Commander Kiril Mihaylov told state-run television that although the relevant units had received information about a possible drone attack through a French patrol aircraft, they were still unable to prevent the tragedy from happening.

The Bulgarian government pointed out in a statement that at least six ships have been attacked by drones off the coast of Bulgaria this month, and it is estimated that more than 20 crew members have died.