A damaged oil tanker blocked the Suez Canal for almost half an hour, causing fear of an interruption in maritime traffic as had happened in early 2021 due to an accident. This was announced by Sca, the Suez Canal authority, explaining that, shortly after midnight, the tanker was removed and traffic re-established.
“The Affinity V tanker was successfully re-routed and traffic was restored as part of an operation involving five towing vehicles,” reads the authority’s statement. The Singapore-flagged tanker is 250 meters long and 45 meters wide and was in transit to the Saudi port of Yanbu. The accident, explained the Sca, “was caused by a technical failure at the rudder, which led to the loss of control of the ship”. The canal is one of the busiest shipping routes for world trade.