Egypt | New attempt to free vessel under way Saturday as blockage causes huge traffic jam

New attempt to free vessel under way Saturday as blockage causes huge traffic jam
A giant container ship remained stuck sideways in Egypt’s Suez Canal for a fifth day Saturday, as authorities prepared to make new attempts to free the vessel and reopen a crucial east-west waterway for global shipping.
The massive vessel got stuck in a single-lane stretch of the canal, about six kilometres (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez.
Efforts to dislodge the ship had allowed its stern and rudder to move on Saturday, but it remained unclear when it could be refloated, the head of the canal authority told a press conference Saturday in Suez.
He said they could not lay out a set timetable for when the ship might be dislodged but that he remained hopeful that a dredging operation could free the ship without having to resort to lighten it by removing its cargo.
Rabei also said that 14 tug boats were now operating, while rescue operations managed to dig enough into the soil to free the rudder and the propeller.
A maritime traffic jam grew to around 321 vessels near Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea, Port Suez on the Red Sea and in the canal system on Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, Rabei said.
He said authorities had not ruled out that “technical or human errors” could be behind the grounding of the vessel.
“Strong winds and weather factors were not the main reasons for the ship’s grounding, there may have been technical or human errors,” he also said.

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هيئة قناة السويس: أكثر من 321 سفينة تنتظر عند مداخل قناة السويس، بسبب تعطل السفينة التي أغلقت المجرى الملاحي

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