Tragedy Strikes After Container Ship Crew Rescued in South Atlantic
The container ship Espirito Santo Express (IMO 9793923) has been abandoned by its crew after an explosion on board caused a fire on October 16. The rescue of the crew was undertaken in very heavy seas, at the very end of which the officer in charge of an extraordinary and heroic operation was thrown overboard and lost his life. The incident occurred midway between Rio de Janiero and Tristan da Cunha, far from shore in the middle of the South Atlantic.
The Singapore-flagged Espirito Santo Express is 330 meters in length and can load 11,923 TEU. The vessel had left Singapore on September 25, rounded the Cape of Good Hope on October 10, and slowed and then disappeared from AIS overnight October 15.
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Tristan da Cunha has no airfield, but the Brazilian Air Force dispatched a radar-equipped Embraer KC-390 transport aircraft from Rio de Janiero to over-fly the rescue effort, one of few aircraft with the speed to get to the area quickly and with the necessary range to loiter in the rescue area. The Brazilian authorities issued NAVAREA V Warning 0648/26 covering the incident and coordinated the response.
Brazilian coordinators nominated the Portuguese-flagged bulk carrier Aeolian Arrow (IMO 9671814) which was nearby and also en route to Santos to take charge of the rescue. The crew accomplished this by launching the Aeolian Arrow’s rescue boat. All 28 crew members from the stricken boxship had been rescued, 19 from a lifeboat and nine from a life raft, and had been recovered to the Aeolian Arrow when the bulker's chief officer - who was in charge of the rescue boat - was washed overboard. He could not be rescued before succumbing to exposure.
