1 crew member dies, 6 rescued as Suez Canal tugboat sinks after collision with tanker

CAIRO – 5 August 2023: A crew member died and six others were rescued as a Suez Canal tugboat sank in the waterway on Saturday after colliding with a giant tanker, said Suez Canal Authority (SCA) Chairman Osama Rabie in TV remarks.

The deceased was an Egyptian mechanic from Port Said called Sayed Moussa, Reuters quoted his family as saying.

In a statement, Rabie said a SCA salvage team and the salvage crane Inkaz have been deployed to recover the tugboat Fahd, after it collided with 230-meter Hong Kong-flagged LPG tanker Chinagas Legend.

A maritime salvage operation is underway to handle the collision, which caused the tugboat to sink at canal mark 51 km in Al-Ballah area.

The oil tanker was sailing among the south convoy at the canal on its journey from Singapore to the United States when the incident took place. The tugboat sank after it was flooded with water due to the collision.

The tanker is currently anchored in Port Said until required measures are finalized, Rabie said, noting that a detailed report about the cause of the incident and the condition of the crew members is currently being prepared.

Chinagas Legend is 230 meters long with a beam of 36 meters and a draft of 27 feet, while its gross tonnage is 52,000 tons, according to the SCA.