Cairo, Aug 6 (EFE) sea, which caused the sinking of the locomotive and the disappearance of a member of its crew.
“The transit of the remaining vessels of the northbound convoy through the eastern bypass of the canal at KM 51 resumes. The recovery operation of the sunken tugboat is scheduled to begin after the transit of the last vessel of the northbound convoy” , the maritime authority said in a statement.
Earlier, Suez Canal Authority Chairman and CEO Osama Rabie said in a statement that the maritime salvage team “succeeded in rescuing six of the crew members of the sunken tugboat and they have been taken to hospital for treatment. carried out the necessary reviews, where it was reported that all were stable”.
However, he pointed out that there is a crew member who is still “disappeared, but the search process is still ongoing”, without giving further details.
The crash occurred during the transit of the oil tanker within the southern convoy on the seaway, coming from Singapore and bound for the United States, with the tug “Fahd”, which caused holes in the hull of the locomotive, the entry of water and then its sinking.
This is the sixth incident of this type so far this year and it occurs two months after the oil tanker “Seavigour” paralyzed traffic in the canal after suffering a mechanical failure for which it had to be refloated.
Although not all events of these characteristics came to interrupt traffic in the canal, these incidents recalled the crisis experienced between March 23 and 29, 2021, when the container ship “Ever Given” blocked the maritime passage with its 400 meters in length and 18,000 containers on board, something that caused a huge traffic jam along this route, through which around 10% of the world’s merchandise passes.
The railway is one of the main sources of income for Egypt and, in 2022, it registered almost 8,000 million dollars. EFE
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