Incident Report

Subject:           Korea - Two Coast Guards Stem Oil Spill off Port of Busan

Date of Email report:   Sun 16/02/2014

Report Detail:

Two Korean Coast Guards and the hole they plugged with wooden wedges and cloth

An 88,000-ton Liberia-registered freighter collided with a 460-ton oil tanker in the waters off Busan on Saturday, causing a 237 kilolitre oil spill, Coast Guard officials said.  This follows a 164 kilolitre spill off the waters of the south-western city of Yeosu recently.
The situation in Busan could have been a lot worse, but the heroic work of two coastguards prevented this, according to officials.   The collision took place around 2:20 p.m. on Saturday amid high waves, and left a hole 30-centimeter wide hole in the hull of the freighter and causing the spill of bunker C crude oil.  Around 4 p.m., coastguards arrived in a helicopter at the site of the incident.

Two Coast Guard officers ― Shin Seung-young, 42, and Lee Soon-hyung, 36, ― were assigned with a life-threatening task of plugging the hole. Dangling from a cable from the helicopter, the two strove to block the hole using wooden wedges and non-woven cloth for more than an hour.  The job was challenging and dangerous as oil continued to spill from the hole and high waves kept the ship moving. The two managed to get the job done around 6:19 p.m.  The Coast Guard said that the affected area covers about 2.5 square miles south of where the ships collided.

The maritime authorities teamed up with Navy vessels to curtail the damage _ 49 Coast Guard patrol ships, 74 Navy boats and four aircraft. Officials are now questioning the captains and crew of the two ships to find the cause of the collision.

Additional Documentation: