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It is not clear to me why the ship exploded, and therefore whether this story is relevant to us here at Rantburg. Any guidance on this question would be gratefully appreciated — I would dearly love to to move up from apprentice analyst to journeyman someday. ;-) [AlAhram] An Egyptian engineer, Mohammed Qassem, was killed in a kaboom on a fat merchantman off the coast of Turkiye last week, and procedures for repatriating his body are underway, Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The Panama-flagged multi-fat merchantman Beata Alfa had 17 crew members onboard, including 14 Egyptians, when it went kaboom! in the Black Sea on Tuesday 20 December.
Ottoman Turkish authorities have not disclosed the causes of the blast.
All 14 Egyptians were maimed and the captain, Hisham Thabet, who is also Egyptian, remains missing and may have drowned, according to Ottoman Turkish local reports.
Qassem, a naval engineer, died from burns suffered during the blast, a report cited Mohammed El-Rawy, the Secretary-General of the Egyptian Marine Officers Union, as saying on Wednesday.
The union, he said, is coordinating with relevant authorities to repatriate Qassem’s body and is also coordinating with the company owning the ship to ensure that his family gets the proper compensation.
Search is still underway for the missing captain, the Ministry of Foreign affairs said.
Four of the injured have left the hospital after recovering, the ministry noted, adding that the other injured Egyptian citizens are expected to stay in hospital for a longer period.
According to the ministry, the Egyptian Embassy in Ankara continues to contact the shipping agent to make sure that the injured citizens receive their financial dues and that the agent bears the cost of treatment until they recover.
The ministry added that it is following up closely on the condition of the injured and is coordinating with various Egyptian ministries and relevant authorities on the issue. 
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