An Egyptian merchant captain has been killed after an explosive drone attacked a bulk carrier in the Black Sea off Russia’s coast, sparking up a major shipboard blaze in the dangerous maritime region. Egyptian Ship Master
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said the dead man was Senior Master Saeed Abdel-Aziz Salama, a Kafr El-Sheikh governorate Northern Egyptian. He was killed when a drone struck the M/V Noran bulk carrier in regional waters, local media reported on Tuesday.
While Captain Salama died, he was one of several people onboard who were evacuated by maritime rescue teams, which saved the other crew members of the multinational crew of Egyptian, Syrian, and Indian seamen. Eight Egyptian seamen were repatriated and landed safely in Cairo via Moscow.
Prior to the evacuation, the merchant freighter suffered severe fire damage during the maritime strike. International vessel-tracking services initially registered the emergency when flames engulfed the vessel mid-transit.
Emergency crews worked rapidly to extract the surviving crew members from the damaged hull as military hostilities escalated in the surrounding waters.
Diplomatic efforts are currently underway to bring Captain Salama’s remains back to his homeland. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty instructed the ministry’s consular unit to maintain continuous liaison with the deceased captain’s relatives.
Egyptian diplomatic staff stationed at the embassy in Moscow are working alongside local authorities to arrange transportation logistics.
However, consular officials noted that physical recovery operations remain constrained until local security conditions improve near the military operations zone where the vessel remains immobilized.
The fatal incident underlines the heightened perils confronting commercial navigation and seafaring personnel traversing the Black Sea shipping lanes.
Merchant vessels in the area face rising operational hazards from unmanned aerial systems and active conflict zones, mirroring previous strikes on commercial freighters across regional ports over the past year. Eqypt Journal
