MNA – Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization announced on Tuesday that it has received both black boxes for sunken Sanchi oil tanker, adding the data has remained untouched.


The deputy director of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization Hadi Haghshenas, who was attending a ceremony to commemorate the 40th day after the death of the Iranian sailors who lost their lives in Sanchi oil tanker incident last month said that according to the SOLAS Convention, the Iranian organization is part of the committee tasked with black box checking.

Haghshenas added that other parties who are present in the committee include representative from the flag state, the country which the ship sank in its waters, and the country that the crew members were from.

He said that Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization has received both black boxes of the sunken oil tanker, adding that the data is untouched, and that the exact cause of the accident would be announced in the next few months.

The Iranian, Panama-registered Sanchi collided with the CF Crystal of Hong Kong about 160 nautical miles off the coast of China near Shanghai on January 6. The tanker was sailing from Iran to South Korea, carrying 136,000 tons of condensate.

The Sanchi sank on Jan. 14 after burning for several days. The entire 32 crew, including 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis, are presumed dead. The bodies of 3 Iranian crew members who were the only ones found will be flown to Tehran from Shanghai, China tomorrow.