Bulk Ship Hit in Strait of Hormuz, Engineer Missing

A dry bulk ship called the Minoan Pioneer was struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz on August 3. The ship lost power. A fire broke out in the accommodation block, and the crew abandoned ship.

The attack happened about 20 nautical miles northeast of Al Khasab, on the Oman coast. Once the crew assembled in lifeboats, they found the third engineer was missing. A search was launched.

The Minoan Pioneer is a Liberia-flagged ship of 93,283 deadweight tons, built in 2011. Seatrade Maritime and Marine Insight both reported the incident. Splash247 confirmed the missing crew member.

The attack came one day after two other ships in the same waters, Egypt Prosperity and On Pride, each reported explosions or warning shots, according to Seatrade Maritime. Neither was seriously damaged.

The Strait has faced wider disruption since late July 2026, when Iran announced a closure to commercial shipping. Traffic through the waterway dropped to a multi-week low, according to tracking data reported by NBC News and Windward Intelligence. Diplomatic talks among US, Iranian, and Omani officials were under way by early August, France24 and i24news reported.