A ship that is the length of the Empire State Building, nearly a quarter-mile long, is blocking the Suez Canal, causing a ripple effect on shipping around the world. The AP reports:
The Ever Given, a Panama-flagged ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, ran aground Tuesday in the narrow, man-made canal dividing continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula. Images showed the ship’s bow was touching the eastern wall, while its stern looked lodged against the western wall — an extraordinary event that experts said they had never heard of happening before in the canal’s 150-year history.
A massive 400 meter-long container ship, Ever Given, is stuck in the #Suez Canal, blocking traffic in one of world’s busiest maritime trade routes. The ship can be seen in this Planet Dove satellite image captured yesterday, March 23rd. pic.twitter.com/as8SRpzSSC
— Planet (@planet) March 24, 2021
There are differing reports over whether the ship was overcome by wind or simply faced a complete blackout.
The New York Times adds, “By Wednesday morning, more than 100 ships were stuck at each end of the 120-mile canal, which connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean and carries roughly 10 percent of worldwide shipping traffic. Only the Panama Canal looms as large in the global passage of goods.”
The Suez Canal has been blocked by a large container ship that ran aground while turning in the narrow channel, causing one of the largest shipping pile-ups in history: https://t.co/XixT2TAf8E pic.twitter.com/BHvwdSFBoe
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) March 24, 2021
The AP adds that “Tugboats strained Wednesday to try to nudge the obstruction out of the way.” There are also reports that crews may be considering digging the boat out.
Watch more from CNN above.