A Croatian minelaying ship ran aground in the Kornati archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea on July 29, during a cadet training mission.
DBM-81 Cetina, one of two minelaying ships of its class originally designed for the former Yugoslav Navy, was on a mission to support the Croatian Military Academy and sailed from Dugi Otok to the port of Lora.
At the time of the accident, there were 18 crew members and 21 cadets and three instructors of the Croatian Military Academy on board.
In the afternoon hours of July 29, Cetina’s sister ship DBM-82 Krka towed it into deeper waters where an initial assessment found that the ship is in seaworthy condition and all ship systems are working.
The material damage will be repaired in the repair yard Iskra in Šibenik, the Croatian defense ministry said.
Cetina and Krka were built in Croatia and were initially supposed to enter service with the Yugoslav Navy. However, Yugoslavia managed to put only one ship into service before the outbreak of the Croatian War of Independence in 1991. Croatia seized DBM-82 Krka that had been in the outfitting phase and later completed the construction of DBM-81 Cetina.
Krka is equipped with a Bofors L70 gun, while Cetina carries two 30mm double-barreled guns. Both ships can carry and deploy close to a hundred SAG-1 naval mines.
