Update: Containership Captain and First Officer Detained after Fatal Suez Collision

Egyptian authorities have detained the captain and first officer of a Kuwaiti containership following their ship’s collision with a fishing vessel in the Red Sea, killing 13 Egyptian fishermen, with 13 still missing, Reuters cites an Egyptian public prosecutor as saying. 

The containership that hit the fishing boat ”Badr,” which was reportedly carrying forty men at the time of the accident, did not stop after the accident occurred, said Bakri Abul Hassan, the head of Egypt’s main fishermen’s trade union, also adding that the accident happened between Ras Ghareb and El-Tor on the Sinai Peninsula.

Fourteen fishermen have been rescued from the water, and search and rescue operations are underway for the remaining missing men.

Although the prosecutor did not reveal the name of the ship or the ship’s operator, media and judicial reports say that it was a Panama-flagged containership en route from Italy to Saudi Arabia. The GulfShip News reported that the vessel in question is 6,921 TEU Al Safat, operated by United Arab Shipping Co (UASC).

World Maritime News contacted UASC to get a confirmation on their vessel’s involvement in the collision, but has received no reply yet.

World Maritime News Staff