Sanchi

Case story · Updated November 2026

Thirty-two sailors, declared dead before the search was over

On the night of January 6, 2018, the Iranian oil tanker Sanchi was sailing through the East China Sea toward South Korea with nearly a million barrels of light crude, known as condensate, when it collided with a Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship, the CF Crystal. The tanker caught fire. The cargo ship's crew were rescued. The Sanchi burned and drifted for eight days before it sank on January 14.

On board were 32 crew members: 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis. Only three bodies were ever recovered. Yet as soon as the ship went down, Iranian officials declared the entire crew dead, and Iran's president called them "martyrs."

The families who would not accept it

For the families, the official account did not add up. They were pressed to accept the deaths and to move on. Ten families refused. They wanted proof of what had happened to their sons, husbands and fathers, and they wanted to know whether any of them might still be alive.

In December 2019 they filed suit in federal court in Washington against the National Iranian Tanker Company, which operated the Sanchi, and two Iranian officials. The defendants never appeared, and the court entered their default.

What happened to the crew

Evidence filed with the court tells a different story from the official one.

The search was cut short. Iranian security forces took control of the search and rescue, and information about the crew was tightly controlled. Iranian authorities announced the end of the search while rescue efforts were still under way, and the whole crew was declared dead before every reasonable chance of survival had been exhausted, as maritime standards require.

The lifeboat was launched. According to a source, video recorded near the burning ships shows the Sanchi's starboard lifeboat being lowered and landing safely on the water. Photographs of the tanker taken two days before it sank show the starboard lifeboat gone from its station.

Crew members reached shore. Video from the Chinese coast, the source says, appears to show Iranian crew members sitting near a dock where a lifeboat marked "Sanchi" was moored.

The crew were taken back to Iran. According to the source, all but three of the crew, who died aboard, were returned to Iran and placed in the custody of the Revolutionary Guards. Documents obtained in early 2025 and filed with the court confirm the transfer. The surviving crew are believed to be held at a remote detention facility.

The court has not yet ruled on this evidence. The families' motion for default judgment is pending before Judge Amy Berman Jackson.

Why this case matters

One of the worst tanker disasters in decades. The Sanchi's loss caused one of the largest oil-tanker spills in decades, in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, yet the fate of its crew has never been independently established.

The rights of seafarers. International maritime law requires that people in distress at sea be searched for and rescued. The case asks whether a state-owned shipping company can end that search on paper, declare its sailors dead, and close the file. It is a rare effort in an American court by the families of seafarers lost at sea to make the operator of the ship account for its crew.

The right to know. If the evidence is right, the Sanchi's sailors did not die at sea but disappeared into state custody. For the families, the question has never been compensation. It is whether the men they lost are alive.

Disclosure: Herischi Law represents the families in Abdollahi et al. v. National Iranian Tanker Company et al. (D.D.C.). Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.