Page 17 - Issue-30-En

ELITE Vol.1, Issue 30, April 2021 Happy

Ramadan
Rescue endeavors: An Egyptian success story Later Admiral Osama announced at dawn Monday, the
The strategy of the SCA relied on three basic stages: the start of tensile maneuvers to float the ship by 10 giant
use of locomotives for tensile work, then the dredging locomotives operating from four different directions,
using the authority's dredgers and returning again to including the Dutch APL GUARD tug with a force of
pulling maneuvers, and finally resorting to reducing the 285 tons that arrived on Sunday evening, as part of the
load, as it is difficult to implement in practice and needs a SMIT Dutch company to participate in efforts to float the
long time, as in such circumstances the load must be ship. Towing maneuvers succeeded in refloating the
reduced Higher, and Egypt lacks a floating crane capable Panamanian container ship, as the ship’s course was
of reaching the height of the ship's containers. significantly modified by 80% and the stern of the ship
The authority contacted the ship’s agent and the company moved away from the bank of the Canal by a distance of
that owns it to unify efforts, pointing out that the owner 102 meters instead of 4 meters prior to the refloating.
company took the initiative to appoint a team of experts Later, after a few hours, the SCA managed to float the
from the Dutch company, SMIT, specializing in maritime Panamanian container ship, then after that, the navigation
rescue and coordination with the authority, to join the movement in the canal was organized. This is another
authority’s team last Thursday, March 25. The procedures great achievement that Egyptians write with their own
for floating the ship during the second day of work, last hands.
Thursday, included the dredging around the front of the On Saturday morning, April 3rd, the Suez Canal
ship to remove targeted quantities of sand estimated at Authority announced that the traffic congestion had
about 15 to 20 thousand cubic meters of sand to reach a ended, with the completion of the crossing of all waiting
depth of 12 to 16 meters, which will allow the ship For ships on the shipping course of the canal, which reached
buoyancy. This is about eight times the size of an Olympic 422 vessels, with a total net tonnage of 26 million tons.
pool. The success of the authority in crossing such a number of
In addition, coordination has been made with external ships and huge loads in record time is a new achievement
parties such as MARADIVE and the Red Sea Ports that adds to the authority's ability to manage emergency
Authority to push additional tugs to participate in the situations and deal with crises.
pulling work, and the authority's locomotives have been Who is responsible for these losses?
pushed with a force of 160 tons. The Suez Canal Numerous legal claims can arise as a result of the crisis.
Authority allowed ships coming from the Mediterranean Toshiaki Fujiwara, senior managing director of The Ever
to dock at the Great Bitter Lake on Wednesday, but the Given, confirmed this to CNN while discussing possible
area had reached its capacity of 43 ships, according to the damages claims. He added that this accident caused a lot
head of the canal. Incoming ships will now dock in the of problems for a lot of people and that there will be
Red Sea and the Mediterranean hold-up areas. lawsuits for damages. "At this time, the company has not
The authority received offers to help with the procedures received any claims," Fujiwara said, adding that "it could
of floating the ship, especially from the United States of take one [to] two or several years to come up with those
America, the United Arab Emirates, Greece, and China. details." On the other hand, Admiral Osama Rabie said
Admiral Osama Rabie, Chairman of the Suez Canal on Saturday that the grounding of a massive container
Authority, indicated on Saturday, March 27, evening in ship in the vital waterway may be due to technical or
the press conference to comment on the developments of human errors.
the floatation of the Panamanian container ship that these
offers are subject to coordination in the case of having to
use the third scenario of lightening the load. The dredging
and excavation work continued in the bow area on Sunday
to remove the sides of the channel in that area and the
dredging to reach it to a depth of 18 meters to facilitate the
floatation process of the ship by relying mainly on
dredging by means of the "Memes" dredge in addition to
the use of ground excavators that allow closer proximity
to the ship.
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