Tag: cargo

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Boeing cargo aircraft makes emergency touchdown close to Honolulu

Boeing cargo plane makes emergency landing near Honolulu

A Transair Beoing 737 Cargo Jet sits on the tarmac at the Transair Cargo Facility at the Dainel K. Inouye Internaional Airport on July 2, 2021 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Eugene Tanner | AFP | Getty Images

A Boeing 737-200 cargo plane made an emergency landing in the ocean near Honolulu early Friday after pilots reported engine trouble, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Both pilots were rescued from a debris field, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The FAA said Transair Flight 810 made the emergency landing at around 1:30 a.m. local time on Friday.

“The pilots had reported engine trouble and were attempting to return to Honolulu when they were forced to land the aircraft in the water,” the FAA said. “The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.”

The Boeing plane was built in 1975 and powered by two Pratt & Whitney engines, according to the FAA. The aircraft was not a 737 Max, the jet that officials had grounded for 20 months through last November after two fatal crashes.

The plane took off from Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport bound for Kahului Airport on Maui, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

“Our situation: We lost number 1 engine and we’re coming straight to the airport,” one of the pilots told an air traffic controller, according to audio from the airport’s tower posted on website LiveATC.net. The pilot said the plane had about two hours worth of fuel. “We’re going to need the fire department.”

“There’s a chance we’re going to lose the other engine,” the pilot said. “It’s running very hot.”

The air traffic controller moments later said: “Low altitude alert. Low altitude alert. Are you able to climb at all?”

“No. Negative,” another pilot said.

The first pilot asked the air traffic controller to “let the Coast Guard know.”

The Coast Guard said it responded to a report of a downed plane south of the island of Oahu at around 1:40 a.m. and that both people on board were rescued, with help from the Honolulu Fire Department.

It said a rescue helicopter located the white-and-orange Transair plane in a debris field at around 2:30 a.m.

One survivor who was seen on the tail of the aircraft was carried out of the water by the rescue helicopter and airlifted to a Honolulu hospital, according to a Coast Guard report. The other person was on top of floating packages and transported to shore by a Honolulu Fire Department rescue boat, it said.

Transair, a Hawaiian cargo carrier, which specializes in flying freight between the islands, didn’t return requests for comment. The airline has been operating since 1982, according to its website.

“We are aware of the reports out of Honolulu, Hawaii and are closely monitoring the situation,” Boeing said. “We are in contact with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and are working to gather more information.”

The NTSB said it is sending 10 investigators to the crash site.

Cargo jets are often decades old, converted to carry freight after years of being used to transport passengers.

Boeing shares recovered some of the losses that occurred after the news of the crash, but ended down 1.3% at $236.68.

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Business

Sri Lanka, Going through ‘Worst’ Marine Catastrophe, Investigates Cargo Ship Fireplace

Sri Lanka, Facing ‘Worst’ Marine Disaster, Investigates Cargo Ship Fire

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The authorities in Sri Lanka have opened a criminal investigation into the crew of a cargo ship laden with toxic chemicals that has been burning off the island nation’s coast for 12 days, spilling debris into the ocean and polluting the country’s beaches.

Several tons of plastic pellets that were being transported on the ship have washed ashore, and Sri Lanka’s Marine Protection Authority described the spill as “probably the worst beach pollution in our history.” Workers have been employed to scour the country’s white-sand beaches for the pellets used in the production of plastic bags and fishing has been discouraged for miles along the coast.

A spokesman for Sri Lanka’s Navy said the fire, which broke out aboard the ship, MV X-Press Pearl, on May 20, had been contained, but on Tuesday thick, black smoke was still seen rising from the burned containers on the ship’s deck.

The spokesman, Captain Indika de Silva, said the ship was carrying 1,486 containers, many of which contained so-called dangerous goods, including nitric acid, caustic soda, sodium methoxide and methane.

The ship was loaded with 350 tons of oil, and a combination of heavy fuel and marine fuel. Captain de Silva said it was “too early to say about an oil spill,” but warned that there was “still a possibility.”

“This is one of the worst marine disasters that has happened in Sri Lanka,” said Dr. Asha de Vos, a marine biologist. “Our only saving grace is that there was no oil spill. If that happens, that will be incredibly tragic.”

X-Press Feeders, the company that operated the vessel, said that a container onboard had been leaking nitric acid well before the ship entered the waters off Sri Lanka, a teardrop-shaped island near India.

The ship’s crew requested it be permitted to offload the leaking container at two previous stops, in India and Qatar, but were denied because the ports lacked the “specialist facilities or expertise” needed to “deal with the leaking acid,” according to X-Press Feeders.

The police have questioned the ship’s crew and sent contaminated water samples to labs for testing. Of the 25 crew members who were rescued and taken to quarantine facilities, two required treatment for injuries sustained during the evacuation and one tested positive for Covid-19, the ship’s operator said.

As the authorities seek to determine the cause of the fire, locals living along the coast near Colombo, the capital, have began a major cleanup.

“I have never seen anything like this before,” said Dinesh Wijayasinghe, 47, an employee at a hotel in the coastal town of Negombo. “When I first saw this, about three to four days ago, the beach was covered with these pellets. They looked like fish eyes.”

Mr. Wijayasinghe said Sri Lankan security personnel have collected as many as 200 bags worth of plastic pellets every day since the fire began.

“Still, more keeps washing ashore,” he said. “We are told not to go to this area. So we are keeping away.”

Dr. De Vos, the marine biologist, said the amount of plastic found on the island’s western and southern coasts was troubling

Plastic pollution, he said, can be a danger to humans and animals, including endangered species like turtles, which hatch their eggs on the beach.

“The pellets can soak and absorb the chemicals from the environment,” he said. “This is an issue because when we eat whole fish, we will also be eating these chemicals.”

Categories
World News

Suez Canal cargo ship blockage might trigger issues for the globe

Suez Canal cargo ship blockage could cause problems for the globe

The stranded container ship Ever Given, one of the largest container ships in the world, was seen aground in Egypt’s Suez Canal on March 25, 2021.

Suez Canal Authority | Reuters

The gigantic cargo ship that is stuck in the Suez Canal and blocking traffic at one of the most important choke points for sea trade in the world is not yet ready to break free.

The Ever Given, a 220,000-ton mega-ship with a capacity of almost a quarter mile and a capacity of 20,000 containers, ran aground after being blown by strong winds as it entered Egypt’s Suez Canal from the Red Sea. The passage, which is home to up to 12% of the world’s maritime trade and through which 50 container ships normally pass per day, is completely blocked.

Tugs and dredgers are currently working on removing the ship, which has been stalled since Tuesday evening. But the operation could take weeks, one of the executives involved warned.

“Although we believe and hope that the situation will improve shortly, there is a risk that the ship will break,” JP Morgan strategist Marko Kolanovic wrote in a note on Thursday. “In this scenario, the channel would be blocked for an extended period of time, which could lead to significant disruptions in world trade, skyrocketing shipping rates, a further surge in energy resources and an increase in global inflation.”

The crisis is another blow to the global supply chain after a brutal year of delays, bottlenecks and price pressures due to the coronavirus pandemic.

What does this mean for world trade?

The shipping delays can affect everything from clothes and shoes you ordered online to fitness equipment, electronics, groceries, and power supplies – which means gas prices could go up too.

“The blocking of containers in the Suez Canal to further shake global supply chains and raise prices in the face of pent-up demand,” said JPMorgan analysts in a research report on Thursday.

The artificial Suez is 120 miles long and an important transit point between east and west. And the 20,000 ships that pass annually transport everything from oil and gas to machine parts and consumer goods.

While it is still early to say how the full impact of the tanker crisis will play out, the bank anticipates that in the near future, the blockade will likely add to the supply strains in the industry, already caused by ongoing supply chain bottlenecks the form of congestion in the port and the lack of ships and containers due to Covid-19 are hindered.

Ships have to divert to completely different routes, “which will lead to longer journey times and further delays,” wrote JPMorgan.

And those delays could be more than 15 days for many ships, the alternative of which is to circumnavigate the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa, which analysts say would increase shipping times by up to 30%.

“The immediate effects of delays in the canal will focus on Euro-Asian trade, delaying the already disrupted supply chains affecting the supply of oil and refined products,” ING senior economist Joanna Konings wrote in a Wednesday Customer notification.

Effects on Crude Oil Prices

The Ever Given disaster is already having an impact on oil prices.

The news of the Suez Blockade attracted buyers and, along with other economic data, helped the one-month futures contract on the international benchmark Brent Crude Oil “posted its largest one-day gain in nearly a year,” according to Arctic Securities on Wednesday $ 64.41 closed “although it lost some of those gains through Thursday.

Meanwhile, between 5% and 10% of all marine oil is transported through the Suez, which means that for every day the ship gets stuck, another 3 to 5 million barrels of oil per day will be delayed. Several tankers carrying jet fuel and gas oil are also being held up on the route between the Persian Gulf and Europe, as well as empty tankers crossing to pick up North Sea oil, S & P Platts reported on Thursday.

A graphic that halts shipping around the Suez Canal after the Ever Given ship got stuck in the canal.

Source: MarineTraffic

The canal is also a transit point for around 8% of the world’s liquefied natural gas (LNG), and a prolonged interruption could disrupt flows mainly to the European market.

Any price effect is likely to be brief, however, says Peter Sutherland, president of Houston-based energy investment firm Henrietta Resources LLC.

“It won’t have a lasting impact on prices, but it will help provide support in the run-up to the OPEC + meeting,” Sutherland told CNBC.

“The risk premium in the oil markets will likely be short-lived, but channel support has still managed to change the market narrative.”

The winners

The canal blockade is certainly not bad news for everyone – the spot freight rates will continue to rise due to the pent-up demand and make money for the operators, say market observers.

“A prolonged closure of the Suez Canal would see container shipping as the greatest beneficiary, while tankers, dry matter and air freight may also have higher rates,” wrote JPMorgan, describing the tightening of shipping rates as an “upside risk”.

Satellite images of the container ship Ever Given are stuck in the Egyptian Suez Canal.

Source: European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 Satellite

Who will benefit most from it? JP Morgan highlights Asian liners, saying they expect higher spot freight rates despite higher bunker costs due to longer rerouted trips and increasing congestion. “In our view, it is expected that this will have a positive impact on the bottom line of the Asian lines rather than hurting profitability,” the bank wrote.

Bank of America analysts agree. “A Suez closure of a few weeks would be very positive for spot freight rates – by effectively reducing supply by increasing the sailing distance over the Cape of Good Hope by 20-30%,” she wrote in her note on Thursday.

Risks and weak points grow

Meanwhile, the Suez Canal blockade will “add to an already rising risk premium for oil and refined products in the Middle East,” said Torbjorn Soltvedt, chief MENA analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, highlighting the increased risk of oil rig attacks amid regional tensions emerged.

The uncertainty about the length of the blockade “creates a window of opportunity for state and non-state actors to try to maximize the impact of attacks on tankers and energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea,” he warned.

Cargo ship “Ever Given” is stuck and blocking traffic in the Suez Canal

Source: Reuters

Most analysts expect the situation to improve within the week. “However, the disorder could be prolonged if complications or torso damage occurs,” Bank of America wrote on Thursday. If the traffic is cleared at some point, the ships arrive at their ports behind schedule, causing further congestion.

Nevertheless, the bank writes: “A blockade of a few days would be largely manageable for container shipping – possibly associated with additional fuel costs, as the shipping companies accelerate their services to make up for lost time.”

The whole fiasco underscores the fragility of the trading network that the world really relies on, Sutherland says.

“Coupled with the recent attacks on Saudi assets, it is a reminder of the many vulnerabilities in the global oil and gas supply chain.”