News

Beached at Chittagong 15.05.25

Eduard Khudainatov, the former CEO of the Russian state-owned oil conglomerate Rosneft, has filed an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit over his claim to the 'May Amadea', which US authorities seized in 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The development came after a US judge ruled in March that Khudainatov could not plausibly claim ownership of the luxury yacht, effectively granting the US Justice Department permission to sell the vessel at auction.

One person is was and two others were missing after a crane collapsed into the water on an Ashkelon pier latein the night of March 14, 2023. The collapse of the crane was caused by unusual weather and strong winds. The injured person was in moderate condition and is receiving treatment at Barzilai Medical Center. Attempts to contact two people who had been working on the site of the crane have been unsuccessful, leading police to believe that they were missing after falling into the sea. Extensive search and rescue efforts were commenced with the help of police diving units, the elite 669 Search and Rescue unit, the Israeli Navy and others. The body of a man of about 60 years of age was found on Beersheba Beach in Ashdod on March 15. The gas pier at the Rotenberg power plant in Ashkelon was damaged. The Electric Company formed a team to investigate the incident. Reports with photos: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-734237 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-734373

The Port of Kiel expects another good season in 2023, resulting in 218 cruise calls, said its MD Dirk Claus in the morning of Jan 17, 2023, as part of a presentation reflecting on last year's results. It follows 2022's record-breaking 244 calls, which saw the port handle over 2.24m passengers, 836,000 of those from cruise vessels. The number of calls in 2019 was 37% less by comparison, numbering 178, and passenger volumes 4.1% lower. 2020 had been forecast to become a record season for Kiel, with 200 calls and 880,000 passengers, but aspirations were dashed owing to the pandemic. This year, a number of larger vessels are scheduled to arrive at Kiel on multiple occasions making the gross tonnage of arriving ships similar to 2022. For 2023, the choice of routes and destinations approached from Kiel will be slightly broader. Moving into the future, Claus expects Kiel to settle on between 200 and 250 cruise calls annually. According to the port, last year’s promising results were the result of ‘intense planning’ with international cruise operators. While 11 calls were cancelled owing to the conflict in Ukraine and the resulting loss of St Petersburg from itineraries, nine were newly added as a result of rerouting by operators. Looking ahead, there will be a strong focus on greener shipping with Claus hoping that between 60 and 100 calls can be supplied with green shore power this year. He stated that Kiel will continue to look at strengthening shore power in line with its corporate sustainability strategy to lower carbon emissions. Work on the new Ostuferhafen shore power plant is expected to conclude towards the end of this year, resulting in Kiel being able to offer shoreside connectivity at all its ferry and cruise terminals from 2024. Along with this €17m investment, a further €2m will be invested to install solar arrays. The systems, which will be fitted on roofs at Kiel Port, are intended to cover up to 30% of the port's electricity requirements in the long term.  Kiel’s first call is expected to arrive April 7 with the river vessel 'Frederic Chopin'. The first cruise ship of the season, Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines’ 'Balmoral', will arrive a week later.  The largest ships to call will be 'MSC Euribia' and 'AIDAnova'. At the other end of the scale, the 'Ocean Majesty' will visit Kiel on six occasions while chartered to Hansa Touristik. The vessel, which celebrates its 57th anniversary this year, is popular with the German source market. One of its calls is scheduled to occur on June 18 during the Kieler Woche sailing festival which will run from June 17-25. Traditionally, this marks the peak of the cruise season with this year no exception: 22 calls are expected by Kiel at the same time as the event takes place. While the highest number of calls is expected between mid-April and the end of September as usual, some ships will continue to call later in the year. 'AIDAnova'’s last departure is scheduled for November 4 whilst December 20 will see Phoenix Reisen's 'Amera' arrive at Kiel as part of a pre-Christmas itinerary. The season will draw to a close a few days later with the 'Spirit of Discovery' on December 29. Costa-, AIDA-, MSC- and TUI Cruises will again be the port's largest cruise customers. The majority of calls account for turnarounds serving the German-speaking source markets, but a number of transit calls will also take place, P&O Cruises’ Britannia, Swiss Ruby, Holland America Line’s 'Nieuw Statendam' and Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ 'Seven Seas Splendor' among them. As in previous years, the Ostuferhafen outside the city centre will be heavily utilised by MSC Cruises and most other cruise ships will arrive at the Ostseekai. 

arrived Alang anchorage 14.05.25

The scheduled call of the 'AIDAprima' in Geirangerfjord on May 15, 2025, had to be cancelled. Geirangerfjord has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since July 14, 2005, and even stricter regulations have been in place since 2025. In order to comply with these regulations, the 'AIDAprima' was recently retrofitted with systems that will continue to allow entry into the fjord. Due to technical challenges, this retrofitted system could not be put into operation on May 15, 2025. As a result, the Norwegian authorities have not granted the 'AIDAprima' permission to enter the World Heritage Fjord. The ship turned around and left the fjord again with a 180-degree turn. AIDA canceled the excursions for the Geirangerfjord and credited the onboard accounts. Captain Miklitza reported that the ship would call in Alesund as an alternative. Alesund was already set as a destination for the current voyage, so ideally they would simply change the rotation and call at Geiranger later in the voyage. The ship berthed in Alesund at 8:15 a.m. Almost all excursions that were planned for a later call in Alesund have been rebooked. The 'AIDAprima' will stay in Alesund until 7 p.m. It is still unclear whether Geiranger will be called later in the voyage.

The fire at the Port of Iskenderun has finally been extinguished, Turkey's ministry of defense announced on Feb 7. It was the second time that the ministry has reported that the fire has been put out; after the previous announcement, the blaze resumed at scale, and firefighters managed to contain it later that night. Iskenderun's container terminal is still closed due to the severe structural damage, which forced the facility to halt all operations. The magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck southern Turkey on Feb 6 had a significant impact on the port, toppling stacks of containers and cracking pavement. The physical damage is severe enough that container lines were diverting vessels to other ports, like nearby Mersin. The quake also sparked a fire in the center of the terminal's container storage area. Turkey's coast guard deployed a vessel to apply water from the quayside, and the Turkish air force and army sent aircraft to drop fire retardant on the blaze. The fire spread despite these efforts, but was finally contained in the night of Feb 7. Report with video: https://maritime-executive.com/article/fire-at-port-of-iskenderun-extinguished-after-two-days

On Dec 1, 2022, at about 3 p.m. the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) was informed that 15 empty containers at Keppel Terminal had fallen from the wharf into the water as a result of strong winds during a squall. There were no reported injuries and no immediate impact to port operations. The MPA deployed two patrol crafts to monitor and cordon off the affected area to facilitate recovery work by PSA Corporation Ltd. MPA’s Port Operations Control Centre has restricted all vessel movements in the vicinity of Keppel Terminal until the containers were recovered.

When the 'Glomar Venture' allided with the Vattenfall wind turbine 18 kilometres off the coast of Zandvoort, its lower part was damaged. This concerns the wind farm Wind Farm Hollandse Kust Zuid. This is one of the largest wind farms at sea, stretching from The Hague to IJmuiden. The affected wind turbine has a tip height of 225 metres and is located exactly on the point of the front section. Hollandse Kust Zuid consists of four sectors and has a total of 139 wind turbines. According to initial research, the turbine was hit at the bottom, which is the yellow part that forms the foundation. After the impact, the wind turbine was stopped and then put 'in neutral' and let the blades continue to turn quietly so that they no longer catch any wind. Last weekend, the wind turbine was put back into operation, temporarily at half power. Vattenfall was still guessing about the cause. An exploratory investigation is currently underway by the Dutch Safety Board. They will investigate what exactly happened that day and which factors played a role in this. Depending on these findings, an official investigation will follow later. The 'Glomar Venture' remained at the Damen Shipyard as of May 15.

Two fishermen were rescued by the crew of the 'FWN Sun', en route from La Rochelle to Gibraltar, on the Atlantic, off the Gironde coast on the morning of May 13, 2025. At 9:36 a.m., the CROSS Etel had received a distress alert by VHF from the fishing vessel 'Ablette ' (MMSI: 227309000) 120 miles west of the Gironde, following a water ingress and a subsequent fire. The CROSS immediately launched "a May Day, enabling the mobilization of the Beechcraft customs aircraft, the Spanish hospital ship 'Juan de la Cosa' and the 'FWN Sun' besides the Raffut SAR helicopter from the Cazaux air base. The two fishermen were finally picked up by the 'FWN Sun' from a life raft. The Raffut SAR helicopter then hoisted the castaways and transferred them to the Arcachon health center, where they were treated at 1:20 p.m.

Thick black smoke was rising from burning containers at Iskenderun Port on Feb 6, 2023. The fire was caused by containers that toppled over during the powerful earthquake that struck southeast Turkey. ATurkish Coast Guard vessel was assisting efforts to extinguish the blaze.

Russia's Ministry of Transport has set up a ferry service across the Kerch Strait to take over vehicle traffic, offsetting some of the impact of the damage to the Kerch Strait Bridge after a truck was blown up on the westbound road deck of the Kerch Strait Bridge on Oct 7 at about 6 a.m. Two spans of the westbound deck collapsed into the water, but the adjacent eastbound deck remained in place. The blast's timing coincided with the passage of a fuel train on the adjacent rail deck, and it ignited seven fuel tank cars, which burned for hours after the explosion. A Russian salvage diving team has arrived on the site and is completing an underwater survey of the damage, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said Sunday. An above-water inspection process is already under way. Traffic had partially resumed on the bridge by late Saturday, though restricted by the extent of the damage. Russia's Ministry of Transport said that it also resumed suburban commuter rail service over the rail track, though not heavy freight trains. Two ferries are already in operation to provide a bypass route, and eight separate parking lots have been set up for temporary storage for cars and trucks waiting to make the crossing. Two more ferries will join the effort on Monday, the Yeysh and Mriya.