Crew members of the Filo Jet said the ship would sink and that the company was not investing in its maintenance, according to audio recordings examined in the investigation into its sinking off occupied Kyrenia on 30 August.
Nine suspects facing charges of causing death by negligence were brought again on Friday before the Kyrenia ‘district court’, which ordered them held for another seven days.
The recordings include discussions of faults in the rudder, radar and cameras, and of water coming in on earlier trips. Crew members can be heard saying “this ship will sink”, while in another recording the captain says its condition is very bad and it is taking on water.
The Turkish Cypriot ‘police’ said 32 days of recordings from the voyage data recorder had been examined and another 34 days remained. There is no audio recording from the day of the sinking.
A university expert and a team of experts from Turkey will take part in the investigation. The number of people wanted in the case has risen to six, and the search continues for a three-year-old girl who is missing.
Relatives of the victims gathered again outside the ‘court’, calling for justice and protesting about the slow progress of the investigation.
Information from Cyprus News Agency
