Suez Canal Tugboat Sinks After Colliding With LPG Tanker

The relevant waterway authorities informed that a tugboat submerged on Saturday in the Suez Canal after it collided with a Hong Kong-flagged tanker.

In a statement, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), which supervises the operation of the critical water passage, said that its teams were striving to recover the tugboat once it launched a process for saving the seven-person crew. It didn’t mention if the movements of other vessels sailing via the canal had been impacted. The canal, which links the Red and Mediterranean Seas, observes the periodic groundings of the mega-large transport vessels that sail via it, many traveling between Europe, China, and the Western Hemisphere. Tugboats help guide ships flowing through.

The tanker that was involved in Saturday’s collision, the authority informed, was the Hong Kong-flagged tanker dubbed Chinagas Legend, which is now waiting in Port Said. In 2021 (March), a skyscraper-sized container vessel, the Panama-flagged Ever Given, reportedly ran aground in the canal’s single-lane stretch, blocking the waterway.

A huge salvage effort led by a flotilla of tugboats, aided significantly by tides, freed it almost a week later, ending the crisis and permitting hundreds of waiting vessels to pass via the canal. Opened in 1869, the Suez Canal is a crucial link for oil, cargo, and natural gas of top foreign currency earners in Egypt. In 2015, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and his government executed a significant canal expansion, permitting it to accommodate the largest vessels in the world.

Reference: Reuter, ABC News, Latestly

Suez Canal Tugboat Sinks After Colliding With LPG Tanker appeared first on Marine Insight – The Maritime Industry Guide

Source: Maritime Shipping News