MOL Comfort Still Afloat in Two Parts
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) updates the status of the containership 'MOL Comfort' as of 18:00 Dubai time on June 25, 2013.
The owners inform that the fore part is located near 15'43"N 69'07"E. The aft part is drifting near 14'03"N 65'30"E in an east-northeast direction. The weather at the site is still adverse.
Some of the containers were lost, but majority of the cargo are confirmed to be aboard the fore and aft part.
MOL say they have contracted with a salvage company which has dispatched tugboats to rescue the cargo and hulls. These four boats arrived at the site on June 24. MOL has started to tow the fore part toward Arabian Gulf. MOL will continue to monitor the aft part and prepare for the tow operation.
No oil film around the fore part. For the aft part, there is oil film, but there is no large volume of oil leakage confirmed.
MOL add that they have started an investigation of the causes together with the shipbuilder, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Although the cause of this incident has not been identified yet, MOL, together with MHI and the classification society (Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, ClassNK), is arranging inspection of the all six sister vessels as quickly as possible. This inspection is in addition to the one carried out by the crew during navigation. MOL also started operational precautions to reduce the stress on the hull as an interim contingency plan.