March 29, 2024

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Rough seas delay salvage operation for burning ship

Tough waters compelled authorities on Wednesday to postpone a salvage operation for the ship packed with VW Team cars that has been on fire for a 7 days in the center of the Atlantic Ocean, a port official explained.

With teams unable to board the Felicity Ace, hefty tug boats sprayed h2o to neat the vessel, which is carrying close to 4,000 automobiles like Porsches, Audis and Bentleys.

The 22 crew associates ended up evacuated very last Wednesday, the working day the hearth started.

Some cars are electric and their lithium-ion batteries have built the fireplace really complicated to extinguish, port officers have said.

João Mendes Cabeças, the captain of the nearest port on the Azorean island of Faial, claimed the blaze had missing its depth, most likely simply because there was very little still left to burn.

Salvage teams hoped to board the ship, adrift all-around 105 miles southwest of the Portuguese islands of Azores, to assess its ailment and begin preparing it for towing, the navy mentioned in a statement on Tuesday.

It is unclear if the vessel will be towed to the Bahamas or Europe.

Cabeças told Reuters poor temperature prevented the team from boarding the ship. Waves as large as 8 feet battered the coast of Faial on Wednesday, Portugal’s temperature agency IPMA claimed.

The salvage crew was envisioned to be flown to the ship on a helicopter belonging to the Portuguese air drive, which will choose Thursday if the procedure can commence, Cabeças claimed.

Ship manager Mitsui O.S.K. Strains Ltd (MOL) explained in a assertion Tuesday the vessel was however on fireplace but stable, and that no oil leak had been described so far. It did not reply to a Reuters ask for for remark on the result in of the fire.

Prelminary estimates on the opportunity reduction from the catastrophe have topped $335 million.