Was safety compromised in an attempt to save money?”Ĭrucially, investigators will look at a lack of training. Was safety compromised to avoid falling behind schedule? Secondly, the Ever Given chose not to have tugboat escort whilst other vessels in the vicinity engaged tugs. “Firstly, a number of other vessels chose to wait for the weather to improve whilst the Ever Given decided to continue despite high winds and a sandstorm. “Two issues in particular stand out,” assesses Abdul. Human error is a wide-ranging category but in the case of the Ever Given it could just come down to a simple error in judgement. Over the years, depending upon the source, it has been stated that between 75% and 95% of marine accidents can be attributed to human error. Likely candidates for systems that could have failed and produced the outcome that occurred would be the ship’s propulsion system or steering system.” “Once again, the ongoing investigation will consider each of these to determine whether they played a contributing role in the incident. Getting to the bottom of which, if any of these, may have failed can be a time-consuming task.
Modern day ships are complicated pieces of machinery composed of an almost limitless number of systems and sub-systems. “In this part of the world, strong winds like those experienced are commonly accompanied by a sandstorm and any reduced visibility caused would no doubt have aggravated the already complicated situation.” This may explain why the Ever Given’s speed was as high as it was,” explains Dr Khalique. Increasing speed can improve the ship’s manoeuvrability. “For ships like the Ever Given, wind is problematic as containers on deck act like a sail, making it difficult to steer. Weather forecasts for showed that winds were expected to gust to over 40 miles per hour. However, Ever Given’s last recorded speed was 13.5 knots. The Suez Canal Authority Rules of Navigation state that a container ship must not exceed a speed of 16 km/hour (8.6 knots). However, Dr Khalique has identified three factors that may have contributed to the accident. The cause of ship’s trouble that day remains uncertain. “Further claims will no doubt arise from many other stakeholders whose cargoes were delayed or even (in the case of perishable goods) have deteriorated to the point where they no longer have any value.” “At the time of writing, the Japanese owners have refused to pay the Suez Canal Authority compensation of £655 million. “For every hour the Ever Given was banked, we’re talking £280m in late and lost trade,” explained Dr Khalique. Blocked for six days, the balance sheet loss was an estimated £40 billion. Connecting Asia and the Gulf with European markets, the 120-mile waterway allows passage to 52 container ships each day. The Ever Given’s collision with the east bank of the Suez Canal on March 23 caused shockwaves around the world. “We’re talking about one of the largest ships ever built – the length of FOUR football pitches – so when you lose control of that, you’re in trouble,” begins Dr Khalique, Head of the LJMU Maritime Centre.
After the world’s most costly cargo ship accident, maritime expert Dr Abdul Khalique mans LJMU’s £2 million simulator to explain what went wrong on board the Ever Given.