Reason for Suez Canal ship’s grounding under investigation

An investigation has begun into how a massive ship got stuck in Egypt’s Suez Canal. 

The 220,000-metric-ton container ship Ever Given became grounded on the banks of the canal last week. On Monday, the Ever Given was successfully freed and repositioned by tugboats, and then sailed to Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake at the canal’s midpoint.

Experts boarded the Ever Given on Tuesday to try to determine exactly how it got stuck and to look for possible signs of damage. The ship’s owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., has said it will participate in the investigation. Initial theories suggested that high winds and the ship’s speed contributed to the incident, The Associated Press reported Tuesday, but authorities are looking into other possible or contributing causes, such as human error. 

The blockade caused numerous problems for the strategic canal and the world. The incident created a backlog of more than 100 ships in the Suez and could result in billions of dollars of losses in trade. Also, hundreds of thousands of animals who were aboard ships stuck in the canal could die because of insufficient amounts of food and water for them on their vessels. 

Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority, which administers the canal, has not yet commented on the cause of the ship getting stuck. 

The Ever Given was anchored in Great Bitter Lake when the experts stepped aboard, AP said.