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Coperta cartii CATASTROFA NAVEI UNIREA / cel mai mare accident naval mondial din anul 1982, de Constantin CUMPANA si Andrei - Dorian CUMPANA

13 Sep 2008

A aparut la editura TELEGRAF ADVERTISING in anul 2007. Pretul cartii: 45 RON, se poate comanda la adresa costyn_c@yahoo.com sau la Agentia de publicitate a cotidianului TELEGRAF, str. Mircea cel Batran nr. 119, telefon 0241/ 672.599, Constanta. ................................................................................................ „Catastrophy of UNIREA vessel – the world’s greatest shipwreck of 1982??o (summary) On October, 13, 2008, 26 years will have passed since the occurence of the greatest catastrophy in the history of the Romanian commercial maritime navigation: total and final loss of the super-oiltanker UNIREA. The super-oiltanker „Unirea??o was the second greatest ship (after „IndependenALa??o) in the series of tankers around 150.000 tdw. built in Romania. On October, 13, 1982, at 09,15 local time, in calm sea and perfect visibility conditions, the 150.000 tdw. tanker „Unirea??o (in fact, the ship had 163.857 tdw.) sunk in a place 40 miles south-south-east of Cape Caliacra, in the Black Sea, at a depth of approximately 1.400 meters, after a mysterious explosion. Romanian ships, R.P.Bulgaria and U.S.S.R ships, as well as Romanian and Bulgarian helicopters took part in the rescue operations. Only one deceased person has been registeres (waitress GanAL?f Elena), the other crew members being saved by the Romanian ships „Motru??o (18 crew members) and „Tg Bujor??o (18 crew members), by a Romanian helicopter, which took aboard three of those who needed urgent care, and by the soviet ship „Ianghi Iuli??o, which recovered 5 more crew members. Out of the 42 survivors, the seaman Gabriel Georgescu was the last to be rescued, after spending eight hours in the cold waters of Black Sea, only to be seen by a Bulgarian helicopter. An interesting fact is that among the survivors was also Mircea B?fsescu, brother of the current Romanian president, Traian B?fsescu The ship\'s insurance repayment value, USD 36,6 million, has been fully received by the Romanian state from its insurers.. The sinking of the Romanian ship has been considered world\'s greatest naval loss in 1982 (according to „Lloyd list??o). The Constanza journalist Constantin CUMP?N? and his son, Andrei - Dorian Cump?fn?f, published, on October, 25, 2007, a documentary book called „Catastrofa navei UNIREA - cel mai mare accident naval mondial din anul 1982??o (« Catastrophy of UNIREA vessel – the greatest shipwreck in the world in 1982 »). The work embodies the author’s wish to offer to the public data, information, testimonies, documents and photographs about one of the greatest catastrophies in the history of the Romanian commercial fleet. While in the „IndependenALa??o case, due to the accident\'s tragic nature, the loss of the huge ship and, especially because of the death of the 42 Romanian sailors, the Communist regime which ruled in that period was forced to offer a short press release about the accident, in the „Unirea??o case absolutely nothing has been officially mentioned. Thus, lacking certain and clear information, because of the absurd censorship in that period, a lot of rumours came into being. Most of these said something about a sabotage, a criminal hand. Others launched the idea of an accident, but its cause was said to have been the ship’s hitting a floating mine. The authors confess, among other things: „(…) we employed a vast documentation, not an inquest. Nevertheless, completing the investigation from 1991, after obtaining new data, information and documents, after hearing the statements of witnesses, experts, survivors, we had the surprise to discover new elements which, under careful analysis, comparison, processing, lead us to conclusions entirely different from those reached by the investigation carried out at the date of accident and included in an official document. We never wanted to doubt the professionalism and bona fide of the experts which took part in the investigation, or who drafted and signed the final document about this case, and nor do we wish that the laying down of our conclusions, contradicting the official ones, to bring out arguments about the case. We believe that the truth about this accident has not been told in its entirety or has only been partially proven and intentionally deformed, using the method called omission (…).

Cumpana Constantin

Link catre fotografie