By Murat Yıldız
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Minister of Public Works and Transport Erhan Arıklı published three certification files linked to the Filo Jet on Monday as he rejected claims that the ferry had sailed without the required papers. The high-speed catamaran capsized off Kyrenia on 30 August with 267 people aboard. Eight are confirmed dead and 20 remain missing.
One of the files establishes that the master's underlying certificate was issued by Honduras' General Directorate of the Merchant Marine. Another is an endorsement issued by the TRNC Ports Department recognising his qualification. Arıklı also said the Filo Jet held a permit to operate high-speed craft, a seaworthiness certificate and other required documents, and that its master had around 25 years of experience.
The permit he cited authorises the craft. The papers released so far do not show the separate craft-and-route type rating described in the International Code of Safety for High-Speed Craft for masters and operational officers, and no authority has publicly identified such a certificate.
Bosphorus News independently obtained and reviewed two of the certificates before the ministry's release: the endorsement issued to the master by the TRNC Ports Department, and the first page of the Filo Jet's Türk Loydu certificate of class. Both are reproduced with this article. Bosphorus News also reviewed the fuller document set released by Arıklı on Monday, including the underlying Honduran master certificate and the remaining pages of the class certificate.
The copies reproduced by Bosphorus News have been redacted by the outlet. The master's name and date of birth, the surveyor's signature and the class certificate's verification code have been removed. Court reporting in Türkiye and the TRNC has identified the master by the initials M.Ö., which Bosphorus News is using while proceedings remain open.
A Master Certificate Issued by Honduras
The Ports Department endorsement was issued on 26 September 2025 and is valid until 26 September 2026. It was current on 30 August.
The holder's capacity is recorded as master. The limitation field reads vessels of 3000 GT or more. A separate field labelled port of register reads Honduras.
The Honduras entry is not evidence of the Filo Jet's flag or registry. This is a seafarer endorsement, not a ship registration certificate.
The document states that it attests recognition of a certificate under the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW). Under that convention, an administration recognising another party's certificate of competency issues an endorsement after verifying the certificate's authenticity and validity.
Arıklı's subsequent release supplies the underlying document. The master's certificate was issued by the Republic of Honduras General Directorate of the Merchant Marine.
Bosphorus News has asked the Ports Department to explain how that Honduran certificate was verified and recognised when the TRNC endorsement was issued, and what the separate port of register field on its own form denotes.
The documents also allow one claim circulating since the disaster to be tested. Turkish maritime outlets carried an allegation that the person commanding the Filo Jet had no licence and was using documentation belonging to another captain. The endorsement is issued in the holder's own name and was valid on 30 August. Arıklı has said publicly that the master was licensed.
The documents do not support that allegation. They do not settle whether every qualification applicable to this craft on this service was held.
The HSC Code Provides for a Separate Type Rating
The Filo Jet's class certificate carries the notation HSC-PASSENGER A and records a completion date of 1 June 2001.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) says the 1994 High-Speed Craft Code was made mandatory under SOLAS Chapter X for high-speed craft built on or after 1 January 1996. The 2000 Code applies to new high-speed craft from 1 July 2002. The Filo Jet's recorded completion date falls between those two construction-date thresholds.
The training and qualifications chapter of the 1994 Code provides for the administration to issue a type rating certificate to the master and officers with an operational role after operational or simulator training, examination and a practical test matched to the particular type and model of craft and the route followed.
The training covers propulsion and control systems, failure modes, handling characteristics, limiting operational conditions, bridge procedures, stability, emergency equipment and passenger evacuation. The code also provides for the rating of a particular type and model to be endorsed for the route after a practical test over that route, with subsequent revalidation.
That is a different certification function from the general STCW master endorsement Bosphorus News has reviewed. It is also different from the permit to operate high-speed craft that Arıklı said the vessel itself held. The three were named in the same defence.
No type rating for M.Ö. appears among the files released on Monday. No conclusion can be drawn from that absence alone.
The unanswered questions are documentary: whether M.Ö. held a valid type rating covering this craft's type and model and the Kyrenia to Taşucu service, which administration issued or endorsed it, and when it was last revalidated.
Bosphorus News has asked the TRNC Ports Department, Türkiye's Directorate General of Maritime Affairs and Filo Denizcilik for that record.
Registry and Radio Identifiers Point Three Ways
Which administration should answer that is itself unsettled.
The TMMOB Chamber of Marine Engineers described the vessel in its written statement as KKTC-flagged, using the Turkish acronym for the TRNC, and gave its IMO number as 8962034. Türkiye's İMEAK Chamber of Shipping database carries the same description.
Public tracking records point elsewhere. Vessel databases list the Filo Jet with a maritime mobile service identity beginning 271, the identification digit the International Telecommunication Union assigns to Türkiye, and record a call sign in the 5B series, which the same body allocates to the Republic of Cyprus. The databases do not agree on the digits themselves, listing more than one identity number for the ship.
None of these entries establishes the vessel's legal registry. Their inconsistency is why the registry certificate itself remains necessary.
The TRNC does not appear as a separate member on the IMO's member-state list or as a separate party on the IMO's published STCW records.
Bosphorus News reported on the conflicting registry record and the absence of a published line permit on Sunday. Neither the registry certificate nor an official explanation reconciling the records had been provided at the time of publication.
What the Class Certificate Shows and What It Leaves Out
The second document Bosphorus News independently obtained is the first page of the Türk Loydu certificate of class. It identifies the vessel as the Filo Jet, IMO 8962034, names Filo Denizcilik Şirketi Limited as owner, and states that the ship was surveyed under Türk Loydu rules and that its hull, machinery and equipment were found in compliance for the stated notation.
It records 4 March 2024 as the completion date of the survey on which the certificate is based. The certificate was issued at Taşucu, Mersin, on 2 June 2026 and runs until 3 March 2029, subject to the requirements for retention of class.
Caption: The first page of the Türk Loydu certificate of class for the Filo Jet, issued at Taşucu on 2 June 2026. The verification code and surveyor's signature have been redacted by Bosphorus News.
Alt text: Türk Loydu certificate of class for the Filo Jet, IMO 8962034, showing the HSC-PASSENGER A notation and a 2 June 2026 issue date, with verification information redacted.
The March 2024 date should not be read as evidence that no later survey took place.
The first page independently obtained by Bosphorus News does not carry the annual survey endorsements. The full certificate subsequently released on Monday records annual surveys at Taşucu on 27 May 2025 and 2 June 2026. Police also told the Kyrenia District Court that the vessel had undergone maintenance and repair work and was approved by Türk Loydu in June 2026.
The question is therefore not whether a June 2026 annual survey occurred. The certificate says that it did.
What remains unanswered is its scope, its findings and whether any condition of class existed on 30 August. The certificate itself says that current survey status and conditions of class, if any, are contained in a separate Ship Status Report.
Bosphorus News has asked Türk Loydu for that report, the scope and findings of the June 2026 survey, whether corrective work was required, and whether any condition of class was open, postponed or closed on 30 August. It has also asked who commissioned the work and in what capacity Türk Loydu acted, since a classification society can perform class work and, where an administration authorises it, statutory functions on that administration's behalf.
Scope matters because of the ship's history. Assistant police inspector Mehmet Mannaş told the same hearing that the vessel had been damaged in an accident in Türkiye 12 years earlier, was bought by Filo Denizcilik in 2024 after repair, and was then licensed to sail. He said the tip of the port forward hull broke off about four miles out of Kyrenia and that the ship took on water and capsized.
Accounts of the Departure Diverged at the Top of Government
Prime Minister Ünal Üstel said on Sunday that the Ports Department initially withheld permission because of bad weather, that the Filo Jet sailed after about an hour's delay, and that it was caught in a storm before taking on water.
President Tufan Erhürman said the weather had been bad the previous day but not on Sunday, and confirmed that clearance was given.
Police later told the Kyrenia District Court that Meteorological Department information indicated conditions were suitable and that the vessel held the required permissions.
On Monday Üstel announced that the port officials who authorised the sailing had been suspended from duty, placed under investigation and replaced.
That is the same Ports Department whose seal appears on the master's endorsement.
Eight Dead, 20 Missing
Üstel put the latest official count on Monday at eight dead, 239 rescued and 20 missing, and published the names of the dead and the missing. The Council of Ministers declared national mourning from 31 August until sunset on 2 September.
Arıklı said the ship sailed at about 60 percent of passenger capacity, carried sufficient lifejackets, and now lies at a depth of about 514 metres. He said investigators were examining AIS and GPS data, radar records, VHF communications, onboard cameras, machinery and alarm data, maintenance and class material, passenger and loading records and meteorological information.
He said he would resign if responsibility were established at his ministry, himself included.
Fourteen people were brought before the Kyrenia District Court on Monday. Nine were remanded for three days, among them the master, seven crew and a company employee. The court also took up five others, including company shareholders and officials of the Ports Department. The judge referred to arrest orders covering sixteen people.
The investigation concerns causing death through want of precaution. Remand is not a finding of guilt, and no technical determination has established why the ship sank.
Bosphorus News sent written questions on Monday to the TRNC Ministry of Public Works and Transport and its Ports Department, to Türkiye's Directorate General of Maritime Affairs, to Türk Loydu and to Filo Denizcilik. An earlier set sent to the two administrations on Sunday also went unanswered. None of the four had replied at the time of publication.
Arıklı released the files to show that the paperwork was complete. They establish that the master's underlying certificate was issued by Honduras, that he held a TRNC master endorsement current on the day of the casualty, and that the Filo Jet held a Türk Loydu class certificate covering that date.
They do not show the craft-and-route type rating described in the High-Speed Craft Code for masters and operational officers, and they do not resolve which administration was carrying that certification function for this ship.
Sources: TRNC Ports Department, Türk Loydu, Republic of Honduras General Directorate of the Merchant Marine, Kyrenia District Court proceedings, TRNC Prime Ministry, TRNC Presidency, TRNC Ministry of Public Works and Transport, International Maritime Organization, International Telecommunication Union, İMEAK Chamber of Shipping, TMMOB Chamber of Marine Engineers, BRT, Kıbrıs Postası, Filo Denizcilik, Bosphorus News review and reporting.