Adm. Ossama Rabiee, Chairman and Managing Director of the Suez Canal Authority, has announced today that the recovery operation of the sunken tugboat FAHD by the SCA crane INKAZ was successful, and that the waterway is now clear. This announcement has been made while H.E. was following-up the salvage efforts on-site.

H.E. has also praised the efforts exerted by the SCA’s maritime salvage team and all the workers who took part in the operation from different departments. Their collaborated efforts got the maritime salvage operation completed efficiently and in record time without affecting the traffic through the Canal despite the challenges the salvage team had faced including strong water currents, zero visibility underwater and deep diving to depths of 27 m. which required using divers’ hyperbaric chambers to help the divers reach normal air pressure.

H.E. has explained that the lifting and recovery operation of the tugboat FAHD entailed numerous measures starting carrying out a survey for the collision incident location to locate the sunken tugboat, followed by securing the location  using warning and guiding buoys to enable the vessels to transit safely and afterwards, commencing the lifting of the sunken tugboat after conducting the necessary recovery calculations.

Adm. Rabiee has pointed out that the recovery site of the sunken tugboat FAHD has been secured navigationally and environmentally against potential oil spill incidents.

H.E. has also asserted that traffic through the Canal is running normally in both directions and that it wasn’t affected by the salvage works; recording over two days (Monday and Tuesday) 146 transits in both directions at a total net tonnage of 8.4 million tons.

(Source: SCA)