Sonali Tiwary
Two Indian-crewed tankers survived projectile and drone strikes within 48 hours, in the Strait of Hormuz and off Romania’s Danube coast. Families of 24 Indian seafarers are breathing easier after both crews walked away unharmed, even as the attacks revive fears over tanker safety across two separate energy and shipping chokepoints.
On October 16, 2026, Union Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal confirmed that the crude oil tanker MT ST 3 was struck by an unidentified projectile while transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The vessel is a 302,977 DWT Very Large Crude Carrier, registered under the Marshall Islands flag with IMO number 9220964. All 15 Indian seafarers aboard are safe, with no casualties reported. The strike came roughly 48 hours after chemical tanker YARA J, carrying 9 Indian crew members, was hit by a drone while anchored at Sulina, near the mouth of Romania’s Danube River Delta. Both incidents add to a growing list of attacks along shipping routes this year, following Karmactive’s earlier coverage of the Hormuz tanker attack and its impact on crude prices.
For the families of the 24 Indian seafarers aboard crude supertanker MT ST 3 in the Strait of Hormuz and chemical carrier YARA J off Romania, the immediate relief is that all crew escaped unharmed. However, for ship operators and oil importers, Friday’s projectile strike confirms that even vessels transiting outside prior UKMTO warning numbers face active missile risk across both energy chokepoints. This follows months of tension after Iran’s claims of eight tankers hit in Hormuz earlier this year.
Minister Sonowal’s statement arrived faster than official Western monitoring. When he publicly named MT ST 3 as hit by a projectile, UKMTO’s public incident board remained frozen at Warning 173-26, and the International Maritime Organization’s JMIC board stayed at Update 105. Commercial shipmasters watching both boards had no public confirmation of a 300,000-ton supertanker strike until India’s own ministry spoke, leaving a gap in official reporting during an active transit crisis.
The crude oil tanker MT ST 3 was transiting the Strait of Hormuz on October 16, 2026 when an unidentified projectile struck the vessel. Sonowal confirmed all 15 Indian seafarers on board were unharmed, days after nine Indian crew members survived the drone strike on YARA J near Romania’s Danube River Delta anchorage. The incident adds to a run of regional flashpoints tracked in Karmactive’s report on Iran’s rejected seven-day Hormuz reopening proposal.
Both tankers remain under review by their operators and flag authorities, with no reported spill or fire from either strike. India’s shipping ministry said it continues tracking the safety of its seafarers across both chokepoints. With UKMTO and JMIC yet to update their public boards, the two strikes leave Indian crews and global energy shippers watching two volatile regions at once.
