FOCUS ON OPENING PORT, CAUSE OF CRASH
The US Coast Guard’s priorities are to restore the waterway for shipping, stabilise the vessel and extricate it, Vice Admiral Peter Gautier said at a White House news briefing.
“The real critical thing here is that, as you know, a portion of the bridge remains on the bow of that ship,” he said. The Coast Guard would work with the US Army Corps of Engineers to remove the debris before the vessel is moved, he said.
The wreck drew attention to the vessel’s safety record, but Gautier said, the ship had a “fairly good safety record”.
The ship was involved in an incident in the port of Antwerp, Belgium, in 2016, hitting a quay as it tried to exit the North Sea container terminal.
An inspection in 2023 carried out in Chile found “propulsion and auxiliary machinery” deficiencies, according to data on the Equasis public website, which provides information on ships.
