Questions have been raised over the authenticity of the licence of the captain of the ferry which sank off the coast of Kyrenia, killing at least eight people, as well as of the status of the safety certificate of the boat itself.

On Monday, a document purporting to be the captain’s licence was circulated on social media, with it claimed that it had been issued by the Republic of Mozambique.

The document had been generated by artificial intelligence, and the north’s ’transport minister’ Erhan Arikli quickly moved to correct the record, publishing another document, which he said was the captain’s licence, which was issued by the Republic of Honduras.

According to the Honduran licence, the captain is a 67-year-old man named Mustafa Oz, with the licence valid until 2029, having been issued on October 30, 2024. 

However, many of the other details which appear on the licence are obscured by the poor quality of the photograph published by Arikli.

The Cyprus Mail has contacted the Republic of Honduras’ directorate-general of merchant maritime and is awaiting a response.

The Honduran licence

Likewise, the ferry’s certificate of seaworthiness, which was issued in June by Istanbul-based ship classification firm Turk Loydu, was also called into question. 

While the certificate states that the certificate is valid until 2029, Turk Loydu’s online database states that the certificate is “invalid”.

It is as yet unclear whether the certificate was declared invalid before or after the ferry sank on Sunday. The Cyprus Mail has reached out to Turk Loydu and is awaiting a response. 

Earlier, newspaper Yeniduzen reported that within the last few years, the ferry had undergone repairs in Greece, and quoted Turkish maritime engineer Erdal Kilic as having said that “I know the boat was damaged twice and both times it was repaired by people who were not qualified at all”. 

The ferry capsized shortly after leaving the new port of Kyrenia at around 12.10pm on Sunday en route to the Turkish port of Tasucu. 

The Turkish Cypriot authorities have said that at present, eight people are confirmed to have died, while a remaining 20 people are missing, though it is feared that this number may rise in the coming hours when the TCG Isin, a Turkish deep-sea search-and-rescue vessel, begins searching the sea floor.