Oil tanker breaks in half and begins leaking oil off French coast
Source: Associated Press
BREST, France (AP) -- A tanker carrying 26 metric tons of diesel oil broke in two Sunday during a violent sea storm and began leaking oil off the northwest coast of France, officials said.
The captain of the Maltese-registered tanker Erika called for help at 6 a.m. (0500 GMT) while the boat was tossing in heavy waves off the coast of Brittany, according to a statement from the port authority in Brest, the Maritime Prefecture.
The tanker split in half about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the port city of Brest at France's northwest tip.
The 26-person crew was evacuated and is reported unharmed.
Brest Port authority captain Yves Merle estimated that between 2,000 and 5,000 metric tons of diesel oil already had leaked into the ocean.
It was still unclear why the Italy-bound vessel broke in half, though ocean conditions were extremely turbulent. The captain's help call signaled "serious structural problems" with the tanker before it split.
Officials called in the powerful Abeille-Flandre tugboat to pull one half of the tanker further from the coast into deep waters. The other severed section is floating vertically, and authorities say they will wait until the weather clears to attempt to move it.
If conditions improve Monday, a team will try to siphon oil out of the tanker onto another boat, Merle said. On Sunday, winds in the area were still 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour and waves pitched to 8 meters (26 feet) high.
"Everything depends on the sea conditions, which today are still very bad," Merle said.
Five of the 26 people aboard had been evacuated by helicopter when the ship broke in two during the rescue by French and British teams. The entire crew of the 180-meter (594-feet) long Erika tanker was reported unharmed.
On Saturday, the captain had told maritime officials that problems with the ship forced him to pause briefly at the port of Donges but said the situation was under control.
The 15-tank vessel, built in Japan in 1975, had left Rotterdam in the Netherlands and was heading to Leghorn, Italy.
A team from the Ministry of Transport has opened an investigation into the accident.
In 1978, Brittany witnessed the worst oil disaster in history when the Amoco Cadiz spilled an estimated 65 million gallons off the coast.
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Publication date: Dec 12, 1999
¸ 1999, NewsReal, Inc.
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