The head of an Iranian delegation tasked with examining reasons behind the collision of a Chinese vessel with the Iranian oil tanker “Sanchi” that sank in the East China Sea earlier in January said the Chinese ship’s change of direction was the main cause of the incident. Addressing a press conference in Tehran on Saturday, […]
The head of an Iranian delegation tasked with examining reasons behind the collision of a Chinese vessel with the Iranian oil tanker “Sanchi” that sank in the East China Sea earlier in January said the Chinese ship’s change of direction was the main cause of the incident.
Addressing a press conference in Tehran on Saturday, Nader Pasandeh pointed to the meetings held over the past four months to examine data of the black boxes of Sanchi and the Chinese ship “CF Crystal” and said Iran, China, Panama, under whose flag the Sanchi was sailing, Hong Kong, and Bangladesh had permissions to examine the incident.
Referring to the main reason behind the incident, he said according to the view of experts from Iran, Panama and Bangladesh, the CF Crystal’s redirection to the right 15 minutes before the incident, caused the collusion.
Pasandeh also emphasized that if the Chinese vessel had not changed direction, the collision would not have taken place.
Sanchi, with 32 people on board, collided with the Chinese freight ship in the East China Sea on January 6 and sank after burning for eight days.
All crew members of the Iran oil tanker, including 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshi sailors, were tragically killed due to inhaling toxic gas and the huge fire which embraced the tanker since the outset of the tragic incident.
The Panama-registered tanker was carrying 136,000 tons of condensate, an ultra-light crude that is highly flammable, to South Korea.
