GAC Egypt reported that an oil tanker ran aground at 159 km of the Suez Canal at about 0850 hours local time on May 11, 2016, shortly after it entered the canal
GAC also says: ” The grounded vessel was refloated at 1205 hours local time and was towed by Suez Canal tugs to Suez outer anchorage. As per information from the Suez Canal Authority, the 163,038 DWT tanker was transiting the Canal as the last ship in the Northbound convoy.” The cause of the accident has not been disclosed yet.
Notably, this is the third ship to run aground as twoo more incidents in the Canal have been also reported in the past two weeks. One week before, the bulker Eibhlin ran aground during its transit while in April MSC Fabiola went aground at the southern end of the Canal, blocking traffic.