The massive container ship that is blocking the Suez Canal may have run aground because of human error, not a strong windstorm, Egyptian officials said …
The massive container ship that is blocking the Suez Canal may have run aground because of human error, not a strong windstorm, Egyptian officials said this weekend. Initial reports said the 1,300-foot,200,000-ton Ever Given got wedged in the shipping channel because of high winds and a sandstorm that affected visibility. But the head of the Suez Canal Authority now says weather conditions were “not the main reasons” for the ship’s grounding. “There may have been technical or human errors,” the canal authority’s Chairman Osama Rabie told reporters Saturday, without giving more details, the BBC reported. “All of these factors will become apparent in the investigation.” Meanwhile, tug boats and dredgers continued working to push and pull the massive ship from the spot where it’s been wedged between the banks of the normally-busy canal since Tuesday. At least 369 boats are lined up in a massive traffic jam waiting to pass through the canal, which handles up to 15 percent of world trade.
