A ship from Mykolaiv explodes on a mine near Vilkovo: three dead

The dredger Ingulsky of Delta Pilot, photo by Marine Traffic

Last night, on 23 July, a vessel of the «Delta Pilot» branch of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority (USPA) exploded on the Danube River near the town of Vilkovo in Odesa region.

This is stated in a post on the USPA's Facebook page.

USPA reported an explosion on the vessel of the Delta Pilot branch, screenshot from Facebook

It is noted that the vessel was at the mouth of the «Bystre» to carry out scheduled work with 11 crew members.

Three port workers were killed in the explosion.

The USPA did not provide information about the cause of the explosion, noting that the details of the incident are being clarified and the results will be reported later.

At the same time, according to «Dumskaya», it is a dredging fleet vessel «Ingulskiy» from Mykolaiv. It is noted that the vessel hit a mine and sank near the town of Vilkovo.

According to the Marine Traffic system, the last location of the «Ingulsky» was recorded last night near Vilkovo.

Last location of the Ingulsky, screenshot from Marine Traffic

«The Ingulsky» is a dredger (so-called dredger) for deepening the seabed and the fairways of rivers and canals. It was built by the Dutch concern Damen under the GHD-750 project in 2012. The vessel is 60 metres long, 11 metres wide, has a draft of 3.18 m, and main engines of 2×300 kW. The hold capacity is 750 m³ and the excavation depth is up to 15 m.