Body found off the coast of İmralı identified as owner of the Batuhan A
It has been determined that the body found 3 days ago off the coast of İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara belongs to Murat Altıntaş, the owner and captain of the cargo ship "Batuhan A" that sank last month.
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In a statement issued by the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, it was recalled that as a result of investigations conducted under the instructions of the Karacabey Chief Public Prosecutor's Office regarding the ship that sank off the coast of Kurşunlu in the Karacabey district on February 15, a lifeless body was found on the water's surface on March 3.
The statement noted that following a DNA match performed by the Council of Forensic Medicine, it was determined that the body belonged to the owner of the cargo ship "Batuhan A," and that search efforts for the 3 missing crew members are ongoing.
The statement provided information that the investigation is being conducted meticulously by the Karacabey Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
It was stated that procedures for handing over the body of the ship's owner and captain, Murat Altıntaş, to his family are underway.
BODIES OF TWO PEOPLE HAD BEEN RECOVERED
The 69-meter-long cargo ship "Batuhan A," which set sail from Marmara Island in Balıkesir at 20:30 on February 14 with a crew of 6 and a cargo of 1,250 tons of marble dust, bound for Roda Port in the Gemlik district of Bursa, sank off the coast of Karacabey at 06:20 on February 15 due to poor weather and sea conditions.
Captain Murat Altıntaş, second captain Hasan Mehmet Uyanık (69), engineer Murat Çalışkan (33), oiler Hüseyin Tutuk, cook Zeynep Kılınç (33), and intern Ahmet Atav (22), who were serving on the cargo ship that settled on the seabed at a depth of 51 meters, 4 miles off the coast, had gone missing.
During two dives conducted by divers from the Naval Forces Command on February 17, the body of Zeynep Kılınç, who worked as a cook on the ship, was recovered. In a dive conducted by SAS commando divers on February 20, the body of Hüseyin Tutuk, who had sent a video to his wife before the ship sank, was also found. Search operations at the ship's wreck were concluded on March 1.
Coast Guard Command teams, who were conducting search activities off the coast of İmralı Island, had reached a lifeless body on the water's surface on March 3.