Dangerous approach

More than 100,000 people live streamed planes landing in gale force winds in London on 18 February. I was one of them.

While I was fascinated by the sheer force aircrafts endured, and the expertise shown by the pilots, two incidents that also took place on that day involving another form of transport closer to home caught my attention, which hadn't received much coverage.

Earlier, Boskalis was called to provide emergency response assistance for two ships that had caught fire – car carrier Felicity Ace near the Azores and Grimaldi-operated Euroferry Olympia near the Greek island of Corfu.

These incidents also caught the public’s interest once it was known what precious cargo was involved – Bentleys, Audis, and Porsches.

However, under different circumstances, many of these incidents happen out at sea where there are no livestreams and ongoing media coverage.

That said, some ports such as Amsterdam, Miami, or Helsinki offer livestreams of operations in port to show off the skills of pilots – another beloved procrastination pastime of mine is to watch compilations of harrowing pilot transfers – as well as tug operators navigate to put ships in place.

I would therefore argue that visibility creates accountability. Hence, these incidents caught my attention for another reason.

The news of the fires on board Felicity Ace and Euroferry Olympia made me think of how resilient the maritime transport sector is.

Firstly, they are another reminder to the industry that fighting for resources between tugs needed to guide ships in ports and firefighting is inevitable, resulting in disruptions of port operations should the ships be brought into ports.

Secondly, the issue with car carrier fires is how inaccessible the vessel is once it is fully loaded.

In this context, with more electric vehicles (EV) being produced and shipped, another issue presents itself. “In the event of a lithium-ion battery catching fire, it is important to note that such a fire reaches very high temperatures, produces toxic gases, and is inextinguishable,” the German Federal Ministry of Transport warned as far back as 2013.

While the cause of the aforementioned fires has yet to be determined, any lithium-ion batteries of onboard vehicles would have kept the fire alive for days.

It is therefore pertinent for ports to prepare to tackle potential incidents as I fear it is just a matter of time until another car carrier carrying EVs will need support in a port or even go up in flames in a port – and that might not go unnoticed by the public.