A cargo ship carrying luxury cars from Germany to the United States on board which a fire broke out two weeks ago it sank Tuesday off the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship, which was called Felicity Ace and was loaded with hundreds if not thousands of cars including Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini, began to sink while operations were underway to move it: the Portuguese Navy said that after tilted by about 45 degrees, it began to sink in an area where the ocean reaches a depth of about 3 thousand meters. All the crew had been rescued after the fire.
Felicity Ace was built in 2005, was about 200 meters long and was owned by a company related to the Japanese shipping company MOL. Last February 16 she was a few hundred kilometers south-west of Faial island, in the Azores, when flames had developed during the voyage; all 22 crew members had been rescued and transported by helicopter to the airport of Horta, on the island of Faial, and last Thursday the operations to move it began.
It is currently unclear how many cars Felicity Ace was carrying before the fire, but ships of this size are generally capable of carrying a few thousand vehicles, as well as several thousand tons of oil and fuel. Second Bloomberg among the approximately 4 thousand cars on board the ship there were various Porsche, Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini. As noted by the Los Angeles Times, various Porsche customers in the United States have been contacted in this regard by its resellers; an auto company official further told Ad Associated Press that Porsche is already working on replacing lost vehicles.
The Portuguese Navy said the ship sank about 220 nautical miles (just over 400 kilometers) from the Azores, outside of Portugal’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Currently in the area there are some debris from the ship and some oil stains that are being tried to disperse. The Portuguese Maritime Authority’s Pollution Department and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) are monitoring the situation.
Photo taken from the Facebook page of Portuguese Navy
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For now, the causes of the fire are not even known. Portuguese authorities said several electric cars were also on board and one of the suspects is that the fire may have been caused by some lithium batteries used to power them.
– Read also: The fire aboard the “Euroferry Olympia” two weeks ago
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