A cargo ship sank in the Marmara Sea off Istanbul on the event date of September 2, 2026, after colliding with another vessel before dawn, leaving 10 crew members missing and triggering a large Turkish search-and-rescue operation.
Turkish officials said the collision took place about 18 nautical miles, or 33 kilometres, off Silivri on the western edge of Istanbul province. The vessel that went down was identified as the Tuğberk İmamoğlu, a cargo ship carrying rolled steel. The other ship was the ALSU, which the transport ministry’s maritime directorate later said was an empty oil tanker. The cargo ship sank shortly after the collision, and rescuers were sent to the area to look for the people on board.
According to the report from Euronews, concern grew when the Tuğberk İmamoğlu stopped responding to calls and crew members did not answer mobile phones. The ALSU’s captain said the collision was reported at 3:15 a.m., giving authorities an early timeline for the emergency response. Turkish officials then dispatched 14 search-and-rescue vessels and a helicopter to the site, turning the stretch of sea west of Istanbul into the focus of a broad recovery effort.
The maritime directorate said life-saving equipment from the missing ship was found at sea, including a lifeboat belonging to the Tuğberk İmamoğlu. Officials said the crew was not inside the lifeboat when it was recovered. That detail intensified the search because it suggested the ship’s emergency gear had been deployed or washed away without the sailors reaching safety. The report said the ALSU, despite damage from the collision, was also helping in the search-and-rescue effort.
There was also a correction in the official account of the tanker’s cargo. The maritime directorate initially said the ALSU was carrying 3,000 tonnes of motor oil, but later said it was empty, a point Euronews said was confirmed by the governorate. That clarification reduced uncertainty over whether the collision had caused a major pollution incident, though the primary emergency remained the search for the missing crew. The available evidence does not say what caused the collision or whether the vessels had been in any prior difficulty.
The Tuğberk İmamoğlu was carrying 4,200 tons of rolled sheet metal at the time of the accident, according to the maritime directorate. The ship’s cargo and the timing of the collision suggest a heavy commercial vessel moving through one of Turkey’s busiest maritime corridors when the crash happened. The accident also occurred near Istanbul, a city where shipping traffic moves through a congested and strategically important waterway linking the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
The sinking came just three days after another deadly maritime accident involving Turkish nationals off Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, where rescuers were still searching for another 20 people listed as missing. The Euronews report did not connect the two incidents directly, but their proximity underscored how quickly maritime emergencies were stacking up for Turkish rescue services.
By the event date, officials had not said whether any of the 10 missing crew members had been found. The evidence in the packet indicates that the cargo ship had already sunk, that rescue units were in the water and air, and that authorities had recovered some equipment but not the people who had been aboard. The central facts remained stark: a loaded cargo ship collided with another vessel off Istanbul, sank soon afterward, and left Turkish rescuers searching for 10 crew members in the Marmara Sea.
