The ship was huge. It had 540 Turkish passengers on board. The captains decided before the beginning of the trip that it would lead the flotilla. I have some of the attack on film with Valentin having just about a minute to do whatever he could in the dark” Ivanov said, adding warnings on the radio started as early as 10 pm Sunday.
We were all gathered inside the captain's cabin – journalists and many American citizens, some were pro-Palestinian activists, others - totally independent people, who were just curious what will happen, I cannot say this was organized provocation, but the conditions for all this to occur were right there – it was like – let's try to pass the blockade, and if we don't succeed, let's at least make headlines. But no one expected the toll that ended up being paid by the Turkish ship.〔http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=116792〕