APL England: debris danger for mariners

As the search for the APL England’s lost containers continues, team members from Port Authority of New South Wales joined the shoreline clean-up operation led by Transport of NSW to locate and remove debris impacting the NSW coastline.

The Singapore-flagged container ship APL England lost 50 containers on 24 May during heavy seas 70km south east of Sydney. An additional 72 containers were damaged in the incident.

Following searches by land, sea and air, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has identified a priority search area of about 1000 km2 between the Illawarra region and Sydney’s southern suburbs, while a map of the recovery operation shows the extent of the incident’s impact.

To date, 15 containers have been recovered but with 35 containers remain missing, mariners in NSW coastal waters are advised to navigate with extreme caution. A navigation warning is in place, with more information in the latest Transport for NSW marine notice.

Sightings of debris and containers should be reported as soon as possible to
incident@transport.nsw.gov.au or by phone to 13 12 36 (option 2).

As Australia’s national regulatory body for maritime safety, AMSA inspected the APL England following its arrival at the Port of Brisbane and has since laid charges against the ship’s master in relation to the incident. AMSA has now issued a direction ordering the owner of the vessel to search for and recover the missing containers.

AMSA and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) are investigating the incident and will release their final reports at the investigations’ conclusion.