By Murat Yıldız
Nine people were brought before Kyrenia District Court on Monday as the investigation into Filo Jet's sinking widened from the cause of the disaster to the vessel's departure permission, maintenance and certification. A Bosphorus News review also found conflicting public registry data and unanswered questions over the financial-security documents connected to its Taşucu service.
The latest official count reviewed before publication remained eight dead, 241 rescued and 18 missing from the 267 people aboard, according to Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman. The figures superseded earlier counts issued during the initial search-and-rescue operation.
The government of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) declared national mourning from August 31 through September 2. Türkiye deployed five Coast Guard vessels and two helicopters, while the Naval Forces assigned six naval assets to the operation. Turkish search efforts on Monday also included two unmanned aerial vehicles and a CASA aircraft.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke separately with Erhürman and TRNC Prime Minister Ünal Üstel after the accident.
The cause of the sinking has not been established.
What happened immediately before Filo Jet left Kyrenia is now part of the investigation in its own right.
Üstel said the Ports Department initially withheld permission on Sunday because of bad weather and that the vessel later sailed about an hour late. Erhürman subsequently said conditions had been bad the previous day but were not bad on Sunday, and confirmed that permission to sail had been given.
Some early reports also attributed to Üstel a separate statement that the voyage had first been postponed from Saturday to Sunday because of the weather. Bosphorus News has not located a primary record of that statement and does not treat a one-day postponement as an established part of the chronology.
The accounts that can be verified establish a weather-related hold on Sunday followed by permission to depart. They do not identify who gave the final clearance, what changed after the initial decision or which meteorological and sea-state records supported the vessel's departure.
The departure time is also unsettled in the public record.
VesselFinder records Filo Jet's AIS-based actual departure from Kyrenia at 08:57 UTC, or 11:57 a.m. local time. Several early news reports placed the departure at around 12:30 p.m., which cannot be reconciled with the Republic of Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center's official record that it received a distress signal concerning the vessel at 12:13 p.m.
Bosphorus News has not obtained the Kyrenia harbour departure log needed to resolve the discrepancy. Using the AIS timestamp, the distress record follows about 16 minutes after departure.
The Larnaca-based Joint Rescue Coordination Center said Filo Jet was about five nautical miles north of Kyrenia when the signal was received. It later contacted the Turkish Cypriot side through the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) and the relevant bicommunal channel and offered air and maritime assistance. According to the center, the Turkish Cypriot side replied that additional assistance was not required at that stage.
The statement does not explain the technical path by which the distress signal reached the center in Larnaca.
Nine People Brought Before Kyrenia District Court
The first detentions after the sinking involved the captain and seven crew members. By Monday, those eight and a company employee had been brought before Kyrenia District Court.
According to Turkish Cypriot state news agency Türk Ajansı Kıbrıs (TAK), the nine appeared in connection with an allegation described as causing death through negligence and carelessness. Police sought three days of detention.
In the latest court account reviewed by Bosphorus News before publication, the judge had not ruled on that request. Judge Hazal Hacımulla said court orders had been issued in relation to 16 people and instructed that the remaining seven also be brought before her.
The proceedings remain at the investigative stage. The allegation and detention proceedings are not findings of criminal responsibility or technical fault in the sinking.
Police told the court that more than 100 statements had been taken and that images and video recorded on survivors' mobile phones would also be examined.
Maintenance, certification and permission to sail were among the matters raised at the hearing.
Police said Filo Jet held the required port permits, that information obtained from the Meteorology Department indicated conditions suitable for the voyage and that Türk Loydu had approved the vessel in June 2026 following maintenance and repair work.
The captain and crew separately told the court that the vessel held the necessary travel and administrative permissions and said waves damaged its forward section before it capsized.
Those accounts were given during an active investigation. They are not technical findings on the cause of the accident. Bosphorus News has not seen the underlying port permits, meteorological records, Türk Loydu survey report or approval documents referred to in court.
The court also sought further technical evidence, witness statements and documentation, along with information on whether a separate investigation had been opened in Türkiye.
TRNC Public Works and Transport Minister Erhan Arıklı said his ministry was conducting a separate examination of the vessel's documents, seaworthiness, port permits and safety measures. On Monday, he also said Filo Denizcilik's services had been suspended.
Türk Loydu Surveyed Filo Jet in 2026
Arıklı said Monday that Filo Jet had undergone a Türk Loydu inspection at Akdeniz Shipyard about two and a half months before the accident and had subsequently received a certificate and class document.
The survey report and documents he referred to have not been released publicly.
Türk Loydu carries out classification work and may also perform statutory surveys when authorized by a flag administration. Its own authorization records include the TRNC among the administrations on whose behalf it may carry out specified statutory functions.
That does not establish the capacity in which Türk Loydu acted when it inspected Filo Jet.
Without the survey report, it is not possible to determine from the material now public whether the 2026 work concerned classification, statutory certification under Turkish Cypriot authorization or more than one survey function. The available record does not show which certificates were covered, whether deficiencies were identified or what corrective work was required before the documents cited by Arıklı were issued.
The statement made in court that Türk Loydu approved the vessel in June 2026 supplies a date for the recent process. It does not disclose what was inspected or the findings on which that approval rested.
A 2018 Court Case Records 29 Türk Loydu Findings
Filo Jet's earlier technical history has also entered the current scrutiny.
The vessel carries International Maritime Organization (IMO) number 8962034, a permanent identifier that links Filo Jet to its former name, Iris Jet.
A January 17, 2024 judgment by Istanbul's 17th Commercial Court, sitting as a maritime court, arose from a commercial dispute over the vessel's 2018 sale. It was not an investigation into a maritime casualty.
The judgment summarizes Türk Loydu survey material and expert reports examined during that dispute. It says a December 17, 2018 Türk Loydu condition survey report drew on inspections conducted in March, May and June that year.
According to the judgment, the Türk Loydu material recorded 29 defects and non-conformities during the March and May surveys and said those findings were still present during checks in Antalya in June.
The judgment also recounts an engine and speed test in which the starboard main engine emitted heavy smoke and could not be taken to the requested engine speed.
These were not technical findings independently produced by the court after an inspection of the vessel. They originated in Türk Loydu material and expert evidence considered in a commercial lawsuit between parties with competing interests. The court nevertheless evaluated that evidence in its reasoning and concluded that numerous deficiencies relevant to delivery, classification and flag-state acceptance had not been remedied at the stage examined in 2018.
Bosphorus News has not established whether the January 2024 first-instance judgment later became final.
Nor does the 2018 record establish the vessel's condition when it left Kyrenia in August 2026.
Filo Jet later changed hands and returned to passenger service under a new name. The current parliamentary scrutiny also refers to renovation and maintenance undertaken after the earlier surveys, including questions about whether stability calculations were repeated following that work.
The relevant records are therefore those showing how the 2018 findings were subsequently closed, what repairs or modifications were completed and which later surveys documented the vessel's condition before it returned to scheduled passenger service.
Democratic Party (DP) Secretary-General and Kyrenia MP Serhat Akpınar put those issues to the Public Works and Transport Ministry on Monday in a 22-question submission. He asked whether authorities knew of the 2018 findings when later operating permissions were issued and sought repair, closure and re-survey records, along with the documentation from the 2026 Türk Loydu inspection.
Public Records Do Not Resolve Filo Jet's Registry
Filo Jet's registry certificate is another document not available in the material reviewed by Bosphorus News.
Türkiye's İMEAK Chamber of Shipping records Filo Jet, IMO 8962034, under the category "KKTC-flagged," identifies the owner category as a foreign shipowner and gives the vessel a gross tonnage of 339. The database leaves its registry number, signal and port of registry fields blank.
The "KKTC-flagged" description is the Chamber's database entry, not an independent Bosphorus News determination of the vessel's legal registry.
A 2024 activity report from the TRNC Public Works and Transport Ministry gives Filo Jet another official connection to the Turkish Cypriot maritime system. The Ports Department section lists the vessel among ships that joined the KKTC maritime sector during the year, but does not state its flag or registry number.
Other public records describe the vessel differently.
The Republic of Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center identified Filo Jet as Turkish-flagged in its account of Sunday's emergency. VesselFinder shows Turkey in the vessel's AIS flag field while separately listing Cyprus in its vessel particulars. The AIS record uses Maritime Mobile Service Identity number 271055034, beginning with the Maritime Identification Digit 271 allocated to Türkiye.
Those discrepancies do not establish improper registration. AIS static information and commercial vessel databases can be outdated or incorrect, and none of those entries replaces the vessel's legal registry certificate.
They do leave the flag administration responsible for Filo Jet difficult to establish from the records currently available to the public.
Bosphorus News has not located a public copy of the registry certificate.
Türkiye's Taşucu Rules Require Registry and Class Records
Türkiye's rules governing scheduled passenger services provide another route to documents identifying the vessel and the inspections supporting its operation.
Under the Regulation on Scheduled Services by Ships, an operator running a regular service between a Turkish coastal facility and a facility abroad must obtain a suitability letter from the Directorate General of Maritime Affairs. Without that letter, the regulation states that no ordino, the harbour master's authorization used in accepting the vessel at the coastal facility, is issued.
The application file includes a ship registry certificate or registry record, international safety certificates, a voyage plan and a class certificate issued by the relevant authorized or recognized organization.
Before the suitability letter is granted, Turkish-flagged vessels undergo a pre-survey and foreign-flagged vessels a port state control inspection. The inspection must have taken place no more than three months before the application, and deficiencies recorded during the inspection must be corrected before approval.
The same article contains a separate provision concerning Türkiye-TRNC transportation. Where a vessel's flag has no assessment record under the Mediterranean or Black Sea port state control memoranda, the Administration may apply what the regulation calls "alternative practices."
The published text does not define those practices.
There is also a drafting complication. The paragraph containing the TRNC provision uses the term hat izni, or line permit, although the preceding provisions state that services to foreign ports are not subject to the regulation's line-permit rules and instead require a suitability letter.
Nothing in the published wording establishes that the TRNC provision removes the separate port state control requirement applicable to foreign-flagged vessels, and Bosphorus News does not draw that conclusion.
The administrative file connected to Filo Jet's Taşucu service should show which registry document was submitted to Türkiye, which inspection supported the suitability process and whether the 2026 Türk Loydu work cited by Arıklı formed part of that approval.
Athens Convention Applicability Depends on the Voyage's Legal Classification
Passenger liability falls under a separate legal framework whose application to the Kyrenia-Taşucu route must first be established.
Türkiye is a party to the 2002 Protocol to the Athens Convention relating to the Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by Sea. Türkiye deposited its instrument with the International Maritime Organization on June 16, 2022, and the protocol entered into force for Türkiye on September 16, 2022.
Application to Filo Jet's voyage is not automatic.
The Convention separately defines "international carriage," and Bosphorus News has not established how a Türkiye-TRNC voyage would be treated under that definition. That threshold must be resolved before reaching a final conclusion on the Convention's application.
If the international-carriage requirement is satisfied, however, the vessel's flag is not the only connecting factor. Article 2 also covers carriage when the contract was made in a State Party or when, according to the contract, the place of departure or destination is in a State Party.
Taşucu is in Türkiye.
The unresolved registry question therefore does not, by itself, determine whether the Athens regime applies.
If it does apply, capsizing falls within the Convention's definition of a shipping incident. For death or personal injury resulting from such an incident, the first 250,000 Special Drawing Rights per passenger sits within a liability layer that does not require the passenger to prove carrier fault, subject to the Convention's specified exceptions.
For losses above that first layer, the protocol provides for additional carrier liability unless the carrier proves that the incident occurred without its fault or neglect.
The International Monetary Fund's latest published Special Drawing Right valuation before the accident was dated August 28. One SDR was worth $1.371280, making 250,000 SDR approximately $343,000 per passenger.
That figure describes the first liability layer under the Convention. It is not a flat or automatic compensation award.
Türkiye Has a PAL 2002 Certificate Procedure
The Athens regime also contains requirements for insurance or other financial security, and Türkiye has a specific administrative procedure governing the PAL 2002 certificate used to document that security.
Where the Convention applies, its financial-security provisions require a State Party to ensure that the required insurance or other security is in force on a qualifying passenger ship entering or leaving one of its ports, regardless of where the vessel is registered.
Türkiye's Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure issued its PAL 2002 certificate directive on October 5, 2022.
The certificate form records details that are directly relevant to the Filo Jet inquiry, including the vessel's name, port of registry, IMO number, the type and duration of the financial security and the identity of the insurer or other guarantor.
The directive's purpose and definition of a ship focus on vessels registered in Türkiye and flying the Turkish flag. Article 5 also permits Türkiye, upon request, to issue or endorse a certificate for a vessel registered in a state that is not party to the Convention when that vessel falls within the Convention's scope.
Article 12 deals with controls connected to Turkish ports. Where the certificate requirement applies, a copy may be requested through a Türkiye-based agent before the ship enters Turkish waters. A valid certificate must also be carried aboard during port state and flag state controls.
The directive states that a vessel required to carry a valid certificate but lacking one is not to be admitted to Turkish territorial waters. If the certificate expires while the vessel is in Turkish waters, departure is not permitted.
Türkiye therefore has a published PAL 2002 control procedure. What has not been disclosed is whether it applied to Filo Jet's Taşucu service and, if so, which financial-security document was used.
Bosphorus News has not located a publicly available PAL 2002 certificate or other accepted financial-security document connected to Filo Jet. The records reviewed do not identify who issued or endorsed such a certificate, which insurer, Protection and Indemnity club, bank or other guarantor stood behind it, or whether the relevant Turkish harbour authority requested or received a copy.
The absence of those records from the public domain is not evidence that Filo Jet lacked insurance or required financial security.
What Bosphorus News Asked
Bosphorus News asked Türkiye's Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure which legal or administrative procedure was used to verify insurance or other financial security on a foreign or TRNC-registered passenger vessel entering or leaving Taşucu.
The ministry was asked what insurance or financial-security document Filo Jet presented in connection with its August 30 voyage, who issued or endorsed it, which insurer or other guarantor stood behind it, whether the document was valid on the day of the accident and which Turkish authority was responsible for checking it.
Bosphorus News also asked whether that verification took place as part of the scheduled-service approval, during port entry or departure procedures or at another stage, and requested the regulation, directive or administrative instruction governing the process.
Separate questions were sent to the TRNC Public Works and Transport Ministry and Ports Department about the vessel's departure from Kyrenia.
Bosphorus News asked whether Filo Jet had initially been denied permission to leave on August 30, the exact time and authority behind that decision and the stated reason. The authorities were also asked who later authorized the sailing, what information or assessment changed, which meteorological or sea-state data were considered and whether written or electronic records exist for both the initial hold and the final clearance.
The Turkish Cypriot authorities were further asked what insurance or other financial-security document Filo Jet had presented, who issued it and which authority checked it. Bosphorus News requested the relevant departure, weather, insurance and decision records.
Filo Denizcilik said after the accident that it had established a crisis desk and was coordinating with search-and-rescue authorities. Its public statements have not disclosed the final departure authorization, registry certificate, Türk Loydu survey report or insurance documentation.
Neither Türkiye's Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure nor the TRNC Public Works and Transport Ministry had responded directly to Bosphorus News by publication time on Monday.
Sources: Türkiye's Official Gazette and Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Directorate General of Maritime Affairs, TRNC government and Public Works and Transport Ministry, Türk Ajansı Kıbrıs, Republic of Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center, Anadolu Agency, TRT Haber, Istanbul 17th Commercial Court judgment, İMEAK Chamber of Shipping, Türk Loydu, International Maritime Organization, International Monetary Fund, Kıbrıs Postası, Haber Kıbrıs, Filo Denizcilik, VesselFinder, Bosphorus News review and reporting.