Drone-hit tanker carrying nine Indian sailors reaches Romanian port, all crew safe

A chemical tanker carrying nine Indian seafarers, which was hit by a drone at an anchorage off Romania earlier this week, has reached the Port of Constanta, with all crew members safe, the Indian mission in Bucharest said on Saturday.

Ambassador Manoj Kumar Mohapatra spoke with Romanian search and rescue bodies, including SAR Romania and MRCC Constanta, as well as the chief security officer of the tanker YARA J, the Indian Embassy in Romania said in a post on X.

“It was confirmed that all nine Indian seafarers on board are safe and the vessel has arrived at the Port of Constanta,” the embassy said.

The ambassador assured the crew of the Indian government’s full support and assistance, it added.

On Friday, Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said YARA J was hit by a drone at Sulina Anchorage, Romania, on Wednesday.

He had also said that crude oil tanker MT ST 3, carrying 15 Indian seafarers, was struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday.

Sonowal said all 24 Indian seafarers aboard the two vessels were safe, with no casualties or injuries. The government was monitoring both situations and was in contact with the ship management companies, he added.

The identities of those behind the attacks were not immediately known.

The incidents come amid a series of attacks on vessels carrying Indian seafarers in the Black Sea region, a theatre of conflict in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, and in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway in West Asia which has been a flashpoint in the continuing US-Iran conflict.

Earlier this month, three Indian nationals were rescued from Turkish-owned cargo vessel MV Royad Mammadov, which was attacked in the Black Sea.

The vessel, carrying corn from Ukraine’s Izmail port to Ravenna in Italy, was struck while sailing in the Black Sea outside Romania’s territorial waters. Two foreign seafarers were killed, and several crew members were injured, while all three Indians survived.

One of the Indian nationals was injured and received treatment at Constanta County Hospital before the three individuals departed for India last week.

India is the world’s second-largest supplier of seafarers, with 311,936 maritime professionals working in the global shipping industry, according to the BIMCO-ICS Seafarer Workforce Report 2026. The report estimates that Indians account for 12.16 per cent of the global seafaring workforce, behind only the Philippines.