The cargo ship was to sink about 200 nautical miles off the coast of the Azores to a depth of about 3000 meters.
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The story of the cargo ship Felicity Ace, which carried less than 4,000 Volkswagen Group cars, has been followed since February 17, when news of a fire began on board. Fortunately, the 22-member crew was quickly evacuated, but the ship remained on fire and swept away by the currents.
Last week, information finally arrived that the ship had stopped burning, which was to be confirmed by the technicians who got on board. In addition, the heavily damaged cargo ship was finally towed last week to tow Felicity Ace to port. But that didn’t work out in the end.
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According to the latest information, the ship began to lose stability during the campaign and on Tuesday it was to sink about 220 nautical miles (about 407 km) from the Azores archipelago. In the places where the ship sank, the depth is about 3000 meters.
According to Marinha Portuguesa, there is several debris at the site of the sinking, and a small oil spill has reportedly appeared, which the tugboats are working to eliminate. The situation should be monitored by pollution and nature conservation experts from both Portugal and the EU. In addition, the Portuguese navy is involved in the operation.
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With the current loss of the ship and the complete cargo, but we did not have any illusions about its condition, it is clear that the damage will be enormous. In addition to the VW cars, there were also Bentley, Porsche and several Lamborghini models on board, while the loss of several Aventador models makes the carmaker wrinkle on its forehead.
Unfortunately, we do not know exactly what caused the fire now. However, according to some speculation, he was actively fed by lithium-ion batteries of electric cars on board, which apparently prolonged the flame fight and delayed the towing of the ship. The loss of stability could then be caused, for example, by a shift in the load, which apparently lost adequate security during the fire.
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