Captain Fully Responsible for Grounding of Ever Given in Suez Canal: SCA

The Captain of the Ever Given was fully responsible for the grounding of the huge cargo vessel that blocked the canal for six days in March, according to Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority (SCA).

“It is due to the Captain’s repeated orders in a very short time,” Captain al-Sayed Shuaisha, head of the SCA’s investigation team, told reporters at the SCA’s headquarters in the Suez-Canal city of Ismailia.

In April, the Egyptian authorities seized Ever Given, one of the largest container ships in the world. The 400-meter-long, 200,000-ton mega containership ran aground across the canal on March 23 and halted the canal’s traffic for six days.

“The data from the ship’s Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) proves that it is not the error of the SCA’s pilots,” Shuaisha said, adding that the data showed three other ships crossed shortly before the Ever Given.