Three crew are presumed dead from Monday’s explosion in Malaysian waters on the 1997-built Pablo, an aframax tanker, with a history of transporting Iranian crude.
, an aframax tanker, with a history of transporting Iranian crude. Dramatic images and videos of the incident have emerged – with almost the entire deck of the ship being blown into the sky.
Malaysian authorities were able to extinguish the fire yesterday and investigations into how the accident happened are underway.
The ship, which has changed hands three times in the last couple of years, as well as jumping from flag to flag, issued a distress call on Monday afternoon after a blaze was detected. Malaysian authorities were able to rescue 25 of the 28 crew.
The ship, registered in Gabon, a popular flag of choice for sanctions-busting companies, is listed as being owned by Marshall Islands-based Pablo Union Shipping, a single ship shell company.
The ship, led by a Russian captain, was in ballast from China to the United Arab Emirates when the blaze broke out.
Footage uploaded to Twitter by maritime analysis firm Tanker Trackers shows the moment the aframax exploded off the coast of southern Malaysia.
While we wait for the results of an enquiry, in the unlikely event that there is one (Gabon is not renowned for its Formal Investigations or for its equivalent of the MAIB) we may remark that the scale of the explosion suggests that the status of the inert gas plant might be worth investigating.