Take cars from China to Mexico. It sank with 3,000 vehicles on board after burning

It was called Morning Midas. Sailed on May 26 From the Chinese port of Yantai with more than 3,000 vehicles on board and destination to the Mexican port of Lázaro Cárdenas. It never arrived. On June 23, after several weeks to drift for a fire on board, the freighter He sank into deep water From the North Pacific, more than 600 kilometers southwest of Adak, in Alaska. It disappeared in silenceleaving behind a trail of smoke, steel and cars that will never touch the mainland.

The fire began on June 3. According to the United States Coast Guardthe smoke came from the roof where electric vehicles were. On board 22 crew members were traveling. Everyone managed to evacuate in time in a lifeboat and were rescued without injuries to the freighter Cosco Hellaswhich was in the area.

A freighter that remained to the Mercer in the middle of the ocean

For days, Morning Midas was drifting, still wrapped in smoke. Rescue teams worked alongside Zodiac Maritime – the British ship of the ship – to evaluate the situation and prepare a possible recovery. But he didn’t have time. The combination of structural damage, bad weather and water entry ended up sinking it more than 5,000 meters deep.

The cargo was as valuable as revealing: 3,048 vehicles, including 70 electric and 681 hybrids, According to data updated by the Coast Guard After verifying the information with Zodiac Maritime. Each unit possibly already had an assigned destination: a dealer or a buyer. Now they rest at the bottom of the ocean, without any possibility of recovering them.

Morning Midas

The history of Morning Midas clearly illustrates the scope of maritime car transport, a global chain that we rarely see but holds the flow of millions of vehicles a year. It also remembers other recent episodes. In 2023, the Fremantle Highway freighter, with about 3,000 cars on board –including about 500 electric-,burned for days at the North Sea. A crew member died. The ship ended up being towed to a port after a week of uncontrolled fire.

Morning Midas

That case led to the Dutch authorities to demand urgent improvements in emergency protocols for this type of transport. Since then, the focus on the difficulty of containing fires into ships that transport cars has been made.

Morning Midas

Zodiac Maritime has deployed several ships equipped with Anticontamination systems To monitor the area. According to the Coast Guardno discharges have been detected to date, although the risk is still present: the ship He transported 1,530 tons of fuelulo of low sulfur content and another 350 marine diesel.

Maritime car transport is a key piece of industrial gear. And while loading more than 3,000 units on the same ship may seem shocking, the truth is that today is almost common. Manufacturers such as ByD have begun to operate their own ships. One of them is already in service and can move up to 7,000 electric cars on a single trip.

It has not yet been confirmed whether the fire aboard the Morning Midas is related to any of the electric vehicles he transported. What is clear is that this type of incidents occur in full electric car boom. Each route that is planned is part of a learning process. And even if we still have no answers, there is a question that resonates: are we safely transporting thousands of high voltage batteries per sea?

Images | US Coast Guard (1, 2, 3, 4)

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