Two bulk carriers have been involved in a collision on the Yangtze River.
The incident which took place early Tuesday morning, saw the 1997-built 46,600 dwt Mirabella collide with the 2004-built 48,800 dwt Omega about 15 nautical miles north of the Yangtze River Estuary.
The ships are owned by Safe Sea Services of Lebanon and Turkey’s Gamma Shipping, respectively.
The Omega suffered water ingress as a result of a breach of one of the cargo holds and is in danger of sinking, cargo claims specialist WK Webster said, citing reports.
The Mirabella was carrying 45,000 tons of iron ore with 24 crewmembers onboard, while the Omega was loaded with some 47,000 tons of steel billets at the time of the collision.
Donghai Rescue Bureau said its teams secured the Turkish bulker from drifting in strong winds and waves and that the Mirabella had also been damaged and partly flooded but managed to anchor in safe waters after the incident.
Authorities added that the 21 crewmembers onboard the Omega were safely rescued after abandoning the ship.
I’m surprised there aren’t more collisions in that general area.
I am surprised that there hasn’t been many if any collisions between ships in the Red Sea with all of the trouble going on in that sea.
The shipping industry should never have been dragged into the trouble between Hamas and Israel in the first place. Seafarers are trying to do their jobs and it’s hard enough for them as it is but being fired on by missiles and other weapons just makes it a huge amount harder.
My country Australia are advocating for a permanent ceasefire and quite a number of us on change.org, avaaz.org, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are advocating for a permanent ceasefire as well as other human rights groups I am in.
There is no easy solution or quick fixes to the trouble. Gaza has been disputed territory for several thousand years so trying to change that is not going to be easy for anyone simply because of how long the dispute over Gaza has been happening