Prime Minister Rumen Radev said two merchant ships were attacked by drones in Bulgaria’s Black Sea exclusive economic zone in the early hours of Tuesday, 13 October. One was brought into Varna with its crew. One sank. Search and rescue for the missing sailors was still running when the first official briefings went out. This is a new Tuesday casualty file. It is not a rewrite of last week’s Alfa Watan sinking and Able fire east of Byala, not a UKMTO product, and not a Hormuz projectile warning.
Radev said a distress signal was received at 01:30 on 13 October for a ship about 18 miles east of Byala, a town some 50 kilometres south of Varna. The Maritime Rescue Centre responded. The crew reported that the ship had been attacked with three aerial drones. Bulgarian Border Police recovered the entire crew: seven Ukrainian nationals and eight nationals of Azerbaijan. Five were receiving medical help for minor injuries. Radev named that hull as Chelsea 3, Maltese-flagged, registered in Odesa, owned in Ukraine, and said it had been brought into the port of Varna. Sofia Globe placed the hit about 15 nautical miles off Byala. Stay with Radev’s 01:30 / 18-mile distress line and the three-drone report from the crew. Do not invent a munition type beyond aerial drones, a cargo, or a named shooter.
The sunk hull is HS Dignity, not Azov Concord
Radev’s first public briefing also named a second ship: the Turkish-owned, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines-flagged Azov Concorde, hit about 17 nautical miles off Krapets on the northern Bulgarian coast, and sunk, with one crew member rescued. That identification did not hold. Vice President Iliana Yotova later contradicted the initial line that Azov Concord was one of the two ships struck. Maritime.bg, picked up by Novinite on Tuesday afternoon, identified the sunk vessel as the Guinea-Bissau-flagged general-cargo ship HS Dignity, IMO 9545912, east of Krapets in Shabla municipality, after a military strike. Four crew rescued from that ship were transferred to the Saint Kitts and Nevis-flagged Azov Concord, IMO 9387748 — the hull that had been misidentified as the casualty and was, on this later account, taking part in the rescue. Another sailor was picked up by the Danish-flagged Skandi Asserter. Search continued for 11 missing crew. Varna district governor Mario Smrkov, in the Associated Press wrap, gave the same 5-rescued / 11-missing count for the Guinea-Bissau-flagged cargo ship Dignity. Reuters and CNA still carried some of the morning’s Azov Concord naming in early wraps. Hold the correction. Do not brief Azov Concord as the wreck.
Open-register colour only, and not a Bulgarian naming beyond the hulls already in the Tuesday briefings. Chelsea 3: IMO 9361392, MMSI 256228000, call sign 9HOU8, Malta, built 2006, about 136 × 16 metres, about 5,170 gt / 5,827 dwt. Registered owner Star Sky Shipping Co Ltd; commercial and ISM manager Black Sea Shipping Management. Fakti put the ship on a passage from Giresun, Türkiye, to Giurgiulești. Rynda’s AIS colour on Tuesday morning was destination GIU MD, ETA 14 October, last position in the Byala reporting area. HS Dignity: IMO 9545912, MMSI 630001133, call sign J5AP5, Guinea-Bissau, built 2008, 123 × 18 metres, 8,642 dwt. Registered owner and commercial manager HS Maritime Dynasty SA; ISM manager GMZ Ship Management Co SA. VesselFinder last heard the ship in the Black Sea, en route to Brăila, Romania, draught about 4.4 metres. Novinite said the last AIS fix was east of Byala more than 14 hours before the afternoon report, on a passage from Algeria to Brăila, and that the ship may have continued with the tracking system off. Those are voyage-colour lines. They are not a class survey, not a wreck position, and not a completed SAR list. Novinite’s Lebanon-manager / Marshall Islands-owner line sits beside the open-register HS Maritime Dynasty print; do not collapse the two. Azov Concord, IMO 9387748, remains the rescue hull on the corrected tape, not the sunk ship.
What Sofia has, and has not, attributed
Radev called an emergency meeting of the cabinet security council. He said he would summon Russian ambassador Eleonora Mitrofanova “for a conversation” and would speak to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “This is absolutely unacceptable — another attack in the immediate vicinity of Bulgarian territorial waters,” he said. Bulgaria was still asking for help to establish which country the drones had come from. “We do not have clear evidence to accuse any of the parties. But logic indicates that the result is in favour of the Russian Federation.” CNA and Reuters recorded that Bulgaria stopped short of an explicit accusation while summoning the ambassador, and that Radev said the outcome “benefits the Russian Federation.” Stay with that. Do not convert a logic line and a diplomatic summons into a named-state attribution, a NATO Article 5 product, or a new JWLA circular.
Geography is exclusive economic zone, not territorial sea. Radev’s own phrasing is “immediate vicinity of Bulgarian territorial waters” and ships “in Bulgaria’s Black Sea exclusive economic zone.” Tuesday’s Byala and Krapets ranges — on the order of 15 to 18 nautical miles off the coast — sit closer inshore than last week’s Alfa Watan / Able geometry, which the dedicated 6 October file placed on the order of 70 nautical miles east of Byala and Cape Sveti Atanas. Closer is not inside 12 nautical miles. Do not brief a territorial-sea hit. Do not brief a port closure. Chelsea 3 was brought into Varna; that is a damaged-ship arrival, not a Black Sea shutdown.
Tuesday is the second deadly merchant sinking in this stretch of the Bulgarian EEZ in a week. The dedicated 6 October file remains the primary for Alfa Watan, IMO 7510884, sunk, with SAR later called off, and for Able, IMO 9001136, abandoned on fire, 18 crew recovered. The dedicated 10 October file remains the primary for NAVWARN 706/26 and the navy boarding of Able adrift east of Cape Sveti Atanas. Do not reopen those SARs as live. Do not add Tuesday’s 11 missing to last week’s missing count. Do not treat Chelsea 3 as a second Able. The crew of Chelsea 3 was recovered in full; the missing sailors on Tuesday’s tape are on the Dignity / Dignity-sinking file.
Operational implications
Coastal traffic along Bulgaria’s EEZ, including the Giresun–Giurgiulești and Algeria–Brăila general-cargo runs, is now inside a two-week drone pattern, not a one-night anomaly. Masters on the western Black Sea coastal route should treat aerial-drone attack as a current threat to small general-cargo ships, not only to tankers in the Gulf or to ships on the Ukrainian grain corridor further north. A three-drone attack that still allows a full crew recovery, as on Chelsea 3, can sit in the same night as a sinking with 11 missing a few hours’ steaming to the north. The two geometries should not be collapsed, but they should sit in the same night-orders pack.
SAR in this EEZ is now a multi-ship problem. Azov Concord and Skandi Asserter were drawn into the Dignity search. AIS colour on Tuesday showed other merchant ships altering towards the area. Owners who do not intend their hulls to become on-scene rescue platforms should still brief masters that a nearby sinking will generate VHF and MRCC tasking, and that a ship which stops to recover people can itself become a radar-picture object in a drone environment. Clubs should be asked, in writing, how war-risk, rescue-deviation and crew-injury covers interact when the casualty is a third-party sinking a few miles away.
Naming risk is operational, not only editorial. Radev’s first briefing put the wrong hull on the wreck. Counterparties, next-of-kin desks and AIS watchstanders who copied “Azov Concord sunk” off the morning political statement would have mis-identified a ship that was, on the corrected tape, picking up survivors. Until MRCC Varna, the flag and the owner print a stable identity, operators should carry both names in the incident log with the correction attached, and should not send a casualty notice against Azov Concord.
What Operators Should Note
- Log two Tuesday EEZ casualties, not a reprint of 6 October. Chelsea 3, IMO 9361392, Malta, three aerial drones per the crew, distress about 18 miles east of Byala at 01:30 on 13 October, 15 crew recovered (seven Ukrainian, eight Azerbaijani), five minor injuries, ship brought into Varna. Separate sinking east of Krapets: Guinea-Bissau-flagged HS Dignity, IMO 9545912, five rescued, 11 missing, search running. Do not add these 11 to the Alfa Watan missing list. Do not brief a territorial-sea hit.
- Keep Azov Concord off the wreck line. Radev first named Azov Concorde as the sunk hull. Yotova contradicted that identification. Maritime.bg / Novinite: HS Dignity sank; four survivors went to Azov Concord, IMO 9387748, Saint Kitts and Nevis; a fifth to Danish-flagged Skandi Asserter. AP’s Dignity 5/11 count matches the later tape. Early Reuters/CNA Azov Concord wraps are the uncorrected morning line. Do not send a casualty circular against Azov Concord.
- Do not convert Radev’s logic line into an attribution. No clear evidence to accuse either party; result in favour of the Russian Federation; ambassador summoned; NATO Secretary General to be called; help still requested to identify the drones’ origin. That is Sofia’s Tuesday political clock. It is not a flag circular, not a named shooter, and not a reason to treat the Bulgarian EEZ as closed.
- Raise the western Black Sea coastal-route threat in the master’s night orders. Two nights in eight days have now produced a sinking in this EEZ. Tuesday’s Byala range is closer inshore than last week’s Alfa Watan / Able geometry and still outside 12 nautical miles. General-cargo ships on Türkiye–Danube and Mediterranean–Danube runs are in the pattern. AIS-off is not a detection shield; Novinite’s stale-AIS colour on Dignity is voyage colour, not a tactic that prevented the hit.
- Brief SAR and war-risk together. A nearby merchant ship became the recovery platform for four Dignity survivors. Masters who alter towards a distress in this EEZ should assume a live drone environment. Ask the club whether rescue deviation, crew injury and war-risk respond on the same night. Do not wait for a wreck position or a pollution volume that has not been published. None has.
- Keep last week’s files in their folders. Alfa Watan sunk and Able adrift-on-fire remain the 6 October and 10 October dedicated pieces. NAVWARN 706/26 is still Able’s notice. Tuesday does not rewrite those products, does not name a new JWLA circular, and does not reopen a called-off SAR as live. Watch MRCC Varna, the Guinea-Bissau flag and HS Dignity’s owner for a revised missing count, a wreck position, or a pollution line. Until then, the published human cost on the sinking is 5 rescued, 11 missing.
Regulas Shipping will keep lining Chelsea 3’s Varna arrival and HS Dignity’s 5-rescued / 11-missing SAR against Radev’s EEZ clock so operators can treat Tuesday’s Bulgarian Black Sea attacks as a new two-ship casualty file, not as a reprint of Alfa Watan or a named-state attribution.
