Tuesday 13 April 2010

Crane crash caught on camera


Footage of an incident involving the Liberia-flagged containership CCNI Antártico last Monday has been released, showing the dramatic moment the vessel demolished a gantry crane at International Container Terminal Services Inc’s (ICTSI) Contecon terminal at the port of Guayaquil in Ecuador, reports IFW sister publication Lloyd’s List.

The 2002-built, 4,100 teu boxship was on its maiden voyage on a service between Asia and the west coast of South America.

Footage posted on YouTube by a Contecon stevedore shows the dramatic moment the Antártico brushed another vessel at berth before ploughing into one of three gantry cranes at the Contecon facility. Remarkably, nobody was injured in the accident.

Investigators are looking into the extent of the damage caused by the incident, but Contecon general manager Luis Cao said that the crane would need to be replaced, a measure that will hit productivity for up to eight months.