Suez Canal
Adm. Rabiee: SCA deploys 4 tugboats to handle the grounding of a containership during its transit through the Suez Canal.
Successful Refloating of MSC ISTANBUL and resuming its transit through the Suez Canal
Admiral. Ossama Rabiee, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, stated that salvage operations are ongoing to handle the grounding incident of the containership MSC ISTANBUL during its northbound transit; heading to Portugal from Malaysia.
Adm. Rabiee pointed out that immediately after the central navigation control station has received the notification that the vessel has run aground at km 78 (Canal marking), four tugboats were deployed at once to refloat the vessel. The four tugs are Port Said, of a bollard pull capacity of 95 tons, in addition to Mosaed 1, Mosaed 2, and Mosaed 5. Besides these tugboats, Baraka 1, one of the SCA’s largest tugboats, is planned to join the salvage operation shortly.
H.E. is also reassuring the maritime navigation world that traffic through the Canal is not affected by this abrupt incident as all the South-bound vessels transited normally, and the rest of the North-bound convoy were instructed to transit through the Eastern waterway instead of the Western lane.
Adm. Rabiee has emphasized the fact that the SCA has extensive expertise in the field of maritime salvage operations as well as the technical and maritime safety capabilities that enable it to deal with any potential emergencies in a professional manner.
