Maritime Security Forces Conduct Exercise in Event of Collision Between Ships in Varna

Filip Pavlov, BTA correspondent Danail Voykov

Real-time action exercise in the event of a collision between a cruise ship and a small commercial vessel in Varna, September 17, 2024 (BTA Photo/Krasimir Krastev)

Varna, on the Black Sea,

17.09.2024 14:09

(BTA)

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Executive Agency Maritime Administration (EAMA) on Tuesday conducted a real-time action exercise in the event of a collision between a cruise ship and a small commercial vessel. The exercise scenario saw a tourist ship with 40 people on board collide with a small damaged merchant ship in the area of Cape Galata. As a result of the collision, eight boats and four ambulances respond to a signal from the national notification system.

"The goal is to make everything as close as possible to real conditions", said Rumen Nikolov, head of Directorate General Search and Rescue Activity at EAMA. He added that the personnel was not on stand-by before the signal, but they were at their workplaces performing their routine tasks, the goal being to test how the arrival of all the necessary security forces would influence traffic in the city.

Nikolov pointed out that the exercise, part of the National Search and Rescue Plan in the Bulgarian Maritime Search and Rescue Area, is being implemented after many years of waiting. The security resources that are used during the exercise come mainly from EAMA, the Bulgarian Navy, the Emergency Medical Care Centre and the Interior Ministry with the participation of the General Directorate Border Police and the Office Fire Safety and Civil Protection.

/RY/