Panama-flagged ship carrying luxury cars sinks in the Atlantic
The Portuguese Navy reported Wednesday that the merchant ship “Felicity Ace”, which caught fire near the Azores loaded with luxury vehicles, sank while being towed outside the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Portugal, leaving a “small ” oily residue stain.
The Panamanian-flagged freighter sank this Tuesday morning after losing stability about 46 kilometers outside the limit of Portugal’s EEZ, in an area with a depth of around 3,000 meters, the Navy reported. The event left floating debris in the area and a “small stain of oily residue”, which is being dispersed with jets of water launched by the tugboats. The Directorate for Combating Pollution of the Portuguese National Maritime Authority and the European Maritime Safety Agency are monitoring the stain.
The Portuguese Air Force is sending a C-295 aircraft to the area and the Navy continues to “monitor” the situation, through the Hydrographic Institute, which updates the calculations of the drift of the current slick.
Onboard the ship are Navy divers and pollution-fighting material, such as ocean protection and containment barriers from the National Maritime Authority.
Preventively, one of the tugboats is heading towards Ponta Delgada (Azores) to embark “a reinforcement of pollution-fighting material,” the Navy reported.
The “Felicity Ace” suffered a fire on February 16, when it was sailing 170 kilometers southwest of the island of Faial (Azores), and its 22 crew members were rescued unharmed and taken to Horta airport by a Portuguese army plane when the fire started in the cargo hold.
After controlling the flames, the towing began on the 24th. The ship built in 2005, had departed from the German port of Emden bound for Davisville (United States), was dedicated to the transport of vehicles, and had the capacity to transport a load of 17,000 tons.
According to information released by the media, it was transporting 4,000 high-end vehicles from the Volkswagen group, such as Porsche and Lamborghini.
