On April 3, 20ß24, shortly after midnight the 'SITC Danang', en route from Qinzhou to Saigon, was in collision with a fishing boat near the island of Hainan. The impact caused the sinking of a fishing boat, whose crew of eight fell into the water and were missing. Hainan emergency response personnel sent military and police search teams to the site, and 21 ships and five aircraft were engaged in the SAR operation. 20 hours after the accident, none of the missing fishermen have been found, while the search operations were still underway. The cause of the accident was under investigation.
News
DALI
The Unified Command continued to coordinate response operations on April 3 to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, despite the challenging weather conditions which included severe thunderstorms and high winds. Eight commercial vessels have meanwhile passed through the two temporary alternate channels that were opened up. The Unified Command staged to begin lifting the first of the undamaged containers off the bow of the 'Dali' to give space to safely operate to begin to plan to remove portions of the bridge that are now also embedded into the ship. They were also waiting for a better weather window to do a 350 ton lift off a section near the main channel. Trained crews, in conjunction with the Unified Command, were taking steps forward with operations and are conducting routine salvage assessments, while evaluating the safest and most effective routes. Divers were on scene to conduct underwater surveys along with mapping out plans for future wreckage removal. While the operations continued, they were adjusted as necessary in response to the adverse weather conditions. The Unified Command remaind committed to re-opening the port while ensuring safety and environmental protection. The Key Bridge Response 2024 Unified Command continues to coordinate response operations despite the challenging weather conditions in Baltimore. The Key Bridge Response Unified Command priorities were ensuring the safety of the public and first responders, accountability of missing persons, safely restoring transportation infrastructure and commerce, protecting the environment, and supporting the investigation. The Maryland Department of the Environment received the results of water sampling taken the day of the incident upriver and downstream of the site. The samples were analyzed for substances associated with fuel constituents, including volatile organic compounds. There was no detection of any of these contaminants. The results will be used as a baseline for comparison with water quality monitoring done throughout response, recovery and reconstruction. Sampling will continue indefinitely every few days, as needed. The current 2,000-yard safety zone around the Francis Scott Key Bridge remained in effect and is intended to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment. Members of the public may not enter the safety zone unless authorized by the COTP or designated representative. Those in the safety zone must comply with all lawful orders or directions given to them by the COTP or designated representative. The COTP issued a Broadcast Notice to Mariners (BNM) via VHF-FM marine channel 16. Mariners are requested to monitor channel 16 for the latest information. A Debris Reporting Hotline has been established. If the public encounters any debris from the incident, please contact +1 (410) 205-6625 The Key Bridge Response 2024 Unified Command includes the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Maryland Department of the Environment, the Maryland Transportation Authority, the Maryland State Police and Witt O’Brien’s representing Synergy Marine. A website with incident response information can be found at the following URL: https://www.keybridgeresponse2024.com For updated information on the status of the maritime transportation system visit the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Maryland - National Capital Region Homeport page: https://homeport.uscg.mil/port-directory/maryland-ncr The media is requested to call the Joint Information Center at +1 (410) 631-8939 for interview response inquiries and interviews. Resources are available for businesses and individuals impacted by the Port closure: Benefit Line for Port of Baltimore Workers: +1 (667) 930-5989 Disaster Loan Assistance: https://lending.sba.gov
FV BREIZ
Philippe Capdeville, 62, the master of the SNSM lifeboat which assisted the 'Breiz', refuted on April 3 in court that he had been negligent. He has been working for the SNSM since 1986 and was the skipper of the Ouistreham lifeboat since 2008, and responded for three hours to the magistrates. On the night of the shipwreck he had been alerted by the CROSS, and the ALB 'SNSM 091 'set sail in 15 minutes. Capdeville admitted to not having been aware of the state of the 'Breiz', a 40-year-old vessel, and overloaded before even starting fishing. When asked why he did not ask the fishermen to throw the boxes of shells on the deck into the water, which could have avoided listing and sinking, he replied: “I can’t imagine a fishing skipper throwing his catch overboard.” The very experienced rescuer, with 900 missions, claimed to have reacted to alerts launched by the towed ship, reduced speed and changed course. “It is not normal for a boat to sink so quickly. All hypotheses are possible. A wave, we don’t know where it came from. I don’t feel like I was negligent. You can't blame everything on me. We're dealing with professionals!”, he replied, referring to the three sailors who lost their lives. In addition to the prosecution for non-compliance with the Colreg convention, Capdeville is also accused of forgery, which concerns the operation schedules (arrival in the area, start of towing etc., which he entered in the logbook, which conflict with those noted by the maritime gendarmerie investigator. He considered that these accusations were related to the vocabulary used. “Why lie when everything is verifiable?” he recalled. The trial is scheduled until April 5.
HDMS IVER HUITFELDT
On April 3, the Dankish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen dismissed its the Defense Chief Flemming Lentfer as a consequence of the problems with the 'Iver Huitfeldt's system failure and defective ammunition. The matter of the frigate's failing systems became publich on April 2 and led to Troels Lund Poulsen asking the defense chief for a quick statement on the matter. He received it on the morning of April 3 from the Defense Command - but parts of the statement were leaked to TV 2 before the minister had even explained the case to the rapporteurs in the defense conciliation circle. In this statement, the Defense Command acquits itself and stated that the Ministry of Defense's department was informed of the case. But the minister was not, he stressed both on April 2 and at the press conference on Aprl 3. But quite surprisingly and quite unseen, the minister receives a new report on the same matter on April 3 from the same sender - the Defense Command. But now the content had changed. The first statement should have contained information that the ministry's department was briefed on the problems with the weapons system on the frigate on March 15, and that this information was to be elaborated on at a meeting between the ministry and the defense command on March 18. The new statement has been changed, but the minister did not say at the press conference exactly which information has been changed. “I'm not trying to hide anything. There have been different perceptions of what was disclosed at a meeting on 18 March," he stated at the press conference, where the minister stated that Major General Michael Hyldgaard has been appointed acting chief of defence. At the press conference, the minister also said that no correct information has been given about the costs of the controversial arms purchase from the Israeli manufacturer Elbit. Potentially, the budget could be exceeded by over a billion Danish crowns. The 'Iver Huitfeldt' returned to Denmark on April 3 morning after a 2-month long mission in the Red Sea, where the task was to protect shipping against attacks by the Houthi movement, a task the frigate had difficulty solving, as it turned out that the ship's central radar system is unstable, and the ammunition for the main guns consists of 30-year-old shells. These were conditions that Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen was not aware of.
RUBYMAR
The anchor of the 'Rubymar', which was hit on Feb 18 by two anti-ship missiles fired by the Houthis, and drifted for a distance of around 30 nautical miles, before sinking on March 2, scraped over the sea bed and damaged three sea cables - the 15,000 kilometer Seacom/Tata cable which runs through East Africa and also connects it to India; the Asia Africa Europe-1 (AAE-1), which winds 25,000 kilometers and connects Europe to East Asia; and the Europe India Gateway (EIG), 15,000 kilometers long and linking India to the United Kingdom. The three submarine cables are located in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which separates Africa from the Arabian Peninsula between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, and the damage caused problems of internet, both in East Africa and in Vietnam.