Indian crew of the Ever Given face ARREST as Egyptian authorities probe crash that blocked the Suez Canal for a week – amid fears they will be made 'scapegoats' for the chaos
The pilots and crew onboard the massive container ship that blocked the Suez Canal could face arrest and be 'made scapegoats' for the incident as investigators continue to search for the cause of the grounding that strangled global trade.
Union officials fear the 25-man Indian crew onboard the 220,000-ton Ever Given, which found itself wedged across the crucial waterway in Egypt last Tuesday, will fall under increasing scrutiny from the Suez Canal Authority, with claims that the workers could soon be placed under house arrest until the investigation is completed.
Egyptian maritime officials are expected to seize the Suez Canal crew as they carry out their probe, with one expert telling Indian media that investigators would listen to recordings of mariners' conversations in the lead-up to the blockage.
Investigators will also question the two Egyptian pilots who were aboard the Ever Given as canal chiefs look at the possibility of 'human error'.
However the Indian government and the Indian seafarers' organizations fear the crew could face criminal negligence charges and jail sentences for the six-day blockage, which held up an estimated £6.5 billion in global trade every day.
'There is a clear danger that the crew will be made scapegoats,' a senior member of the shipping industry told The Times of India.
The pilots and crew onboard the 220,000-ton Ever Given could be arrested and 'made scapegoats' for the container ship's grounding, it has been claimed
The ship was pulled up the waterway on Monday afternoon and opened the door for billions of dollars' worth of goods to resume their progress through the canal
Salvage teams celebrated as they pulled the Ever Given towards the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water where Egyptian authorities say the ship will undergo technical inspections
Meanwhile Captain Sanjay Parashar, a member of India's National Shipping Board (NSB), said: 'Firstly, it has to be ascertained as to how the giant ship ran aground.
'Facts can be checked by examining and listening to conversations in the ship voyage data recorder; one can then come to an understanding as to what caused the mishap.'
The ship's Japanese owner has said that it would be part of the investigation but refused to discuss possible causes of the accident, including the vessel's alleged high speed.
It comes after photos and tracking sites showed the Panama-flagged Ever Given being pulled up the waterway on Monday afternoon, opening the door for billions of dollars' worth of goods to resume their progress through the canal.
Salvage teams were blaring their foghorns in celebration as they pulled the Ever Given towards the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water where Egyptian authorities say the ship will undergo technical inspections.
Egypt's president Abdel Fatteh al-Sisi had earlier declared that 'Egyptians have succeeded in ending the crisis' despite the operation's 'massive technical complexity.'
But it was unclear how long it would take to deal with the backlog, with the world's largest container firm, Denmark's Maersk, warning that 'it could take six days or more for the complete queue to pass'.
Yesterday trapped container ships were seen snaking their way through a newly unblocked Suez Canal as the week-long crisis on the waterway reached its end.
Vessels anchored for nearly a week were sailing up the narrow passageway where the 220,000-ton Ever Given had been wedged since last Tuesday, causing a massive traffic jam that strangled global trade.
Easing tailbacks to the north and south, 113 ships were due to navigate the unblocked section of canal by 8am local time on Tuesday, Suez Canal Authority chief Osama Rabie told reporters.
He praised the speed of the salvage operation on the MV Ever Given as 'record-breaking', claiming it would have taken three months anywhere else in the world.
Canal services provider Leth Agencies said the 1,300ft Ever Given had been 'safely escorted to Great Bitter Lake' by the authority, which said it was now 'anchored' ahead of an investigation and out of the path of other ships.
The bow of the Ever Given was finally dislodged from the channel's bank on Monday and towed up the waterway after tugboats had straightened the vessel in an early-morning operation and dredgers had vacuumed away large chunks of sand.
'The relief is palpable that we won't see a long-term closure of what is an important trade route,' said market analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK.
But Guy Platten, the secretary-general of the International Chamber of Shipping, told BBC Radio 4 that legal issues arising from the blockage could last for months as people try to recover the cost of delayed or expired goods.
The Liberian-flagged container ship YM Fountain was among those to sail up the narrow section of the Suez Canal which had previously been blocked by the Ever Given in a damaging six-day stoppage
The US-flagged Maersk Denver was also navigating the canal piled high with containers as traffic resumed a week after the Ever Given blockage which caused a traffic jam of more than 400 vessels on the busy waterway
Egyptian canal authorities said more than 100 ships were due to navigate the unblocked section of canal by 8am on Tuesday, carrying billions of dollars' worth of goods out of a traffic jam
NASA's Landsat 8 satellite captured images of some of the vessels stuck on March 27, as hundreds of ships were left idling around the Suez Canal as engineers worked to dislodge a grounded vessel
The container ship 'Ever Given' enters Great Bitter Lake after it was refloated, unblocking the Suez Canal on March 29, 2021 in Suez, Egypt
A ship sails through the Suez Canal as the shipping lane re-opened following the week-long saga that disrupted global trade
Back on course: The Ever Given was floating in the Suez Canal again and being towed by a fleet of tugboats on Monday as the shipping saga which has brought billions of dollars' worth in trade to a standstill neared its end
Order restored: People watch as the container ship is refloated on Monday, unblocking the Suez Canal after a six-day stoppage which added to what was already a crisis in the shipping world
Although the ship is free, it is unclear how long it will take to deal with the backlog its grounding caused. Pictured: A satellite image shows the tugboats alongside the Ever Given on Monday
'There is no doubt about it, the disruption will carry on. Everything's sort of out of kilter really,' he said, adding that 'some cargoes will have almost certainly perished as a result of this'.
'There's lots of litigation coming down the road as we try and rebalance it all and people try and recover the monies they've lost,' he said.
In the hours before the ship was dislodged, the tailbacks had reached 425 vessels carrying everything from crude oil to cattle.
Dozens more were taking the alternative route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip - adding some two weeks and thousands of miles to journeys and threatening delivery delays.
Maritime data company Lloyd's List said the blockage had held up an estimated $9.6billion worth of cargo each day between Asia and Europe.
The rescue team had made a major breakthrough early on Monday by dislodging the ship's stern and straightening its position, taking advantage of a high tide brought on by a 'supermoon' .
The bow remained wedged in the canal bank for several more hours after the stern was freed, but the tugboats finally wrenched it out after the high tide returned later on Monday - allowing the ship to float again.
The fully laden vessel was hauled over the canal bank at around 3pm and the head of Egypt's Suez Canal Authority announced shortly afterwards that shipping traffic had resumed in the waterway.
'She's free,' an official involved in the salvage operation said.
The ship was due to head to Rotterdam after transiting the canal on its way from Asia, but it was unclear whether it would continue to the Dutch port after its inspection or head elsewhere for repairs.
The Ever Given's managers, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), said there had been no reports of damage to the cargo.
Peter Berdowski, the head of a Dutch salvage firm hired to extract the Ever Given, celebrated the successful operation by saying: 'We pulled it off!'
'I am excited to announce that our team of experts, working in close collaboration with the Suez Canal Authority, successfully refloated the Ever Given, thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again,' he said.
The Dutch firm said the operation carried out under 'the watchful eye of the world' had required 13 tug boats and the dredging of approximately 30,000 cubic metres of sand.
Evergreen Line, which is leasing the Ever Given, confirmed the ship had been successfully refloated and said it would be inspected for seaworthiness.
Egyptian authorities have said they can accelerate convoys through the canal once the Ever Given is out of the way, with canal chief Admiral Osama Rabie vowing that 'we will not waste one second'.
He said it could take from two-and-a-half to three days to clear the backlog, while another Egyptian source said more than 100 ships would be able to enter the channel per day.
But other estimates say it could take up to 10 days to clear the traffic jam, and Maersk said the knock-on disruptions to global shipping could take weeks or even months to unravel.
The tailback of ships carrying everything from crude oil to cattle had reached 425 by the end of the drama with vessels waiting in a queue at the two ends of the canal, in the Mediterranean and Red Seas.
With canal transits stopped, Egypt has already has lost over £69million in revenue, according to the data firm Refinitiv.
About 15 per cent of world shipping traffic transits the Suez canal, which is an important source of foreign currency revenue for Egypt.
Old sections of the canal - opened in 1869 and widened since - had been reopened to ease the congestion, but there is only one lane on the southern end where the ship was stuck.
Egyptian boys celebrate across from the Ever Given after it was fully dislodged from the banks of the Suez Canal on Monday
Dugboats including the Dutch-flagged Alp Guard, which arrived in the canal on Sunday, were towing the Ever Given today
On the move: The Ever Given was back on its way in the Suez Canal today, being pulled by tugboats towards a wide stretch of water nearly a week after it got jammed in the Egyptian shore in a blockage that strangled global trade
Footage on Egyptian TV showed the Ever Given on the move today, bringing an end to the week-long saga in the Suez Canal
Progress: The Ever Given cargo ship was no longer wedged across the entire width of the Suez Canal today after tugboats managed to dislodge the stern in an early-morning operation
Challenge: Some way south of the Ever Given, a fleet of cargo ships was still waiting to get through the canal despite the progress made by salvage crews early on Monday morning
The ship had earlier been moved from its diagonal position across the waterway in the first stage of the salvage operation
Partially afloat: The Ever Given was straightened earlier today before it was eventually freed and resumed its progress
Breakthrough: This picture taken from a tugboat on Monday morning showed the Ever Given substantially straightened, although it remained unclear how long it would take to fully re-open the Suez Canal
A view from the canal early today as the captain of a rescue crew gives a thumbs-up (left) after the ship was rotated (right)
Satellite data early this morning showed the straightened Ever Given surrounded by a squadron of tugboats with its stern no longer appearing to be blocking the entire shipping route
The cargo ship, seen on Sunday before it was freed, had completely blocked traffic on the Suez Canal for a week
Shipping giant MSC told customers that it 'expects this incident to have a very significant impact on the movement of containerised goods'.
The obstruction could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East, with Syria already rationing the distribution of fuel in the war-torn country amid fears of delayed shipments.
Romania's animal health agency said 11 ships carrying livestock out of the country were also impacted, while the charity Animals International warned of a potential 'tragedy' affecting some 130,000 animals.
Global container shipping was already in crisis because of disruptions caused by the pandemic, sending shipping costs rocketing because of limited space aboard the vessels.
Egypt's president al-Sisi had ordered preparations for some of the ship's 18,300 containers to be removed if dislodging efforts had failed.
Taking containers off the ship likely would have added even more days to the canal's closure, and required special equipment that would not have arrived until later in the week.
But as the high tides came in on Sunday night, diggers set to work removing parts of the canal's bank while specialist tugboats also joined efforts to float the giant ship.
The Dutch-flagged Alp Guard and the Italian-flagged Carlo Magno, which were called in to work alongside tugboats already on scene, reached the Red Sea near the city of Suez on Sunday.
Containers are seen on board the Ever Given, some of them bearing the label of the Evergreen Line which is leasing the vessel
Partially refloated: The ship was no longer stranded across the width of the Egyptian canal after the Monday morning operation
Nighttime operations taking advantage of the supermoon king tide successfully re-floated the Ever Given early on Monday. The 1,300-foot ship had completely blocked shipping traffic on the vital Suez Canal for a week
Peter Dotselaere, an instructor at the Antwerp Maritime Academy, stands at the controls of a mock-up Ever Given in a simulation of how the accident that has brought global trade to a standstill might have happened
The Ever Given is seen in the dawn on Monday after a successful operation to re-float the stuck container vessel
Some of the containers piled high on the Ever Given are seen from the canal bank today after the ship was partially refloated
The Ever Given is now in a more horizontal position when seen from this side of the canal, having previously been spreadeagled diagonally across the waterway
Rescue teams intensified excavation and dredging efforts around the Ever Given container ship after high tides were created by the full Worm Moon
The Japanese-owned ship disrupted global shipping valued at more than £6.5billion per day and exacerbated the global economic crisis triggered by Covid-19
A man waves goodbye to the Ever Given on Monday as economists said its disruption of shipping through the Suez Canal probably won't have an impact on global trade for more than a few weeks
Economists say the Ever Given's disruption of shipping through the Suez Canal probably won't have an impact on global trade for more than a few weeks, and is unlikely to derail global growth this year as more people get Covid-19 vaccines and economies reopen.
But it's another wake-up call for companies that have set up their business to rely on supply chains with little room for error, said William Lee, chief economist at the Milken Institute.
'This is a warning about how vulnerable our supply chains are and how the just-in-time inventory techniques that have been so popular have to be rethought,' he said. 'The shortages and the supply chain shortages that cause assembly lines to shut down - that will have a greater impact.'
The incident is another ripple worsening shortages of shipping containers in Asia, which means retailers may be late getting TVs, furniture, clothes, auto parts and many other goods that are shipped via containers.
Many countries got a harsh lesson in those realities last year when commerce, was disrupted in myriad ways after new coronavirus outbreaks began in China, the world's factory floor.
Consumers everywhere soon found that ordering online was an adventure in the unknown, with many factories shut down and trade between Chinese provinces stalled.
Obtaining supplies of medicines and vital personal protective equipment such as face masks and other medical supplies became challenging, and sometimes impossible.
Officials had feared they'd have to unload the ship, a prospect that now appears off the table after the operation
Officials said they wanted to make use of the the high tides created by the supermoon to dislodge the 220,000-ton skyscraper-sized Ever Given
An aerial view taken on March 27, 2021 from the porthole of a commercial plane shows stranded ships waiting in queue in the Gulf of Suez to cross the Suez Canal at its southern entrance near the Red Sea port city of Suez
The closure also affects oil and gas shipments. Nearly 10 per cent of oil shipments and eight per cent of global liquid natural gas moves through the Suez Canal, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Much of the traffic involves transpiration of crude oil from the Middle East to Europe and the U.S. It's also become an important link for Russian oil to Asia.
The disruption from the canal blockage comes at tricky time for international trade and shipping, noted Fiona Boal, global head of commodities at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
'The cost of shipping goods from Asia to Europe hit a record high in recent months and global freight rates are already near three times the level of a year ago,' she said.
North and Latin America are likely to be less affected than Europe by the blockage in the Suez Canal, because much of the shipping container traffic that runs between the Americas and Asia moves through the Pacific to hubs like the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, or crosses through the Panama Canal.
'The impact on the U.S. will be less than on Europe,' Hufbauer said.
On Saturday, the head of the canal authority told journalists that strong winds were 'not the only cause' for the Ever Given running aground, appearing to push back against conflicting assessments offered by others.
Admiral Rabei said that an investigation was ongoing but did not rule out human or technical error.
Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement maintains that their 'initial investigations rule out any mechanical or engine failure as a cause of the grounding.'
However, at least one initial report suggested a 'blackout' struck the hulking vessel, which is carrying some 20,000 containers, at the time of the incident.
Rescue crews desperately trying to free the container ship blocking the Suez Canal today said they have made a breakthrough and had managed to move the skyscraper-sized vessel by nearly 100ft
The massive Ever Given (pictured), a Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, got stuck on Tuesday in a single-lane stretch of the canal
A tugboat is seen on Sunday near the Ever Given container ship which ran aground in the Suez Canal, Egypt
The plan is for the tugboats to nudge the 400-meter-long Ever Given as dredgers continue to vacuum up sand from underneath the vessel and mud caked to its port side, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which manages the Ever Given, said
A handout satellite image made available by MAXAR Technologies shows excavation around the bow of the Ever Given and dredging operations in progress, in the Suez Canal, Egypt, March 28, 2021
Workers planned to make two attempts to free the vessel on Sunday, coinciding with high tides, a top pilot with the canal authority told The Associated Press
Stranded ships are now waiting in a queue in the Gulf of Suez after the container ship blocked the waterway
The Ever Given is wedged about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the canal's Red Sea entrance near the city of Suez. A prolonged closure of the crucial waterway would cause delays in the global shipping chain
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