Suez Canal tugboat sinks in deadly collision with gas tanker

Admiral Osssama Rabiee, chairman and managing director of the Suez Canal Authority (left) is briefed on efforts to recover the sunken Suez Canal tugboat Fahd. [Photo: Suez Canal Authority]

A salvage team yesterday recovered the body of a crew member from a Suez Canal tugboat that sank after a fatal collision with a gas tanker transiting the canal.

The incident occurred Saturday when the Suez Canal Authority tugboat Fahd was in a collision with the Wah Kwong managed, Hong Kong registered, LPG tanker Chinagas Fortune when it was in the canal’s south convoy en route from Singapore to the United States. The collision resulted in damage to the hull of the tugboat, with water flooding in and leading to its eventual sinking.

Admiral Osssama Rabiee, chairman and managing director of the Suez Canal Authority says that a salvage team and the salvage crane Inkaz were deployed to the scene. Though six of the tugboat’s seven crew were rescued and hospitalized, the body of the seventh, chief mechanic El-Sayed Ali Mohamed Mousa, was recovered by divers. It was found in a series of consecutive dives to survey the cabins of the Suez Canal tugboat, which is submerged at a depth of 24 meters.

Traffic on the canal has resumed in both directions and, as of yesterday, says newspaper Al Ahram, divers were working to secure eight wires to the tugboat wreck to enable it to be lifted by the salvage crane.

The Suez Canal has said little about the actual circumstances of the collision, but Admiral Rabiee said that a detailed report about the cause of the incident and the condition of the crew members is currently being prepared.

The Chinagas Fortune is currently anchored at Port-Said until incident-related measures are completed.

Built by the Bodewes Binnenvaart shipyard in 1974, the 34.3 meter, 36 tonnes bollard pull Fahd is listed by the Suez Canal Authority as an escort and firefighting tug.