Ocean Freight Has Become A Dangerous Business
The past couple of weeks have been a disastrous period for ocean freight as several crew members have tragically lost their lives, highlighting the apparent increasing risk to merchant shipping crews.
2 weeks ago, the tanker ship ‘Prestige Falcon’, capsized off the coast of Oman with 16 Indian and Sri Lankan crew members aboard. One was subsequently found dead, and while nine were rescued, six more remain missing.
Last week saw two more incidents that resulted in fatalities. Six of the nine crew members from Myanmar are also missing after the cargo ship ‘Fu Shun’ sunk near Taiwan due to high winds and treacherous waves during Typhoon Gaemi, and a fire onboard the ‘Maersk Frankfurt’ containership led to the death of a Filipino member of its crew.
These incidents follow the loss of 4 crew members during two Houthi Rebel attacks in the Middle East during the past three months, which continues to be a major threat to the limited shipping still servicing the Red Sea region.
The loss of life is not just restricted to crew members as another catastrophe this year saw the vessel ‘Dali’ crash into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, killing six bridge workers when the bridge collapsed. In another incident last year, two firefighters were lost in Newark when they got trapped aboard the fire-stricken car carrier ‘Grande Costa d’Avorio’.
Although the most recent incidents have not been associated to dangerous goods, there have been numerous ship fires attributed to hazardous products during recent years, which include the global rise in the use of lithium-ion batteries. Therefore, the risks associated with being a merchant crew member continue to rise.
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