The Bosphorus Strait has been closed to transit traffic after athe 'Vitaspirit' crashed into a historic waterfront mansion under the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge on Istanbul's Asian side in the Anadolu Hisarı area on Apr 7, 2018, after its rudder got stuck
The Bosphorus Strait has been closed to transit traffic after athe 'Vitaspirit' crashed into a historic waterfront mansion under the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge on Istanbul's Asian side in the Anadolu Hisarı area on Apr 7, 2018, after having an engine failure.
The ship crashed into the Hekimbaşı Salih Efendi mansion around 4 p.m. with a speed.
The mansion was built in the 18th century and has been used to host weddings and concerts. The 'Vitaspirit' was heading to Ukraine from Alexansria. No injuries or environmental threats have been reported. There was no residents in the mansion during the accident.
The bulkcarrier had approximetly 13 meters of draught and some 75.000 tons of Barley cargo from Russia to international markets.
Some 45.000 ships of various sizes, 20% of them tankers passing from Turkey's busy Istanbul Strait every year.
The accident site is in the narrovest and deepest part of the strait, where water depth is exceeding 50 meters.