Five crew members of the Ocean Trader container feeder have been handed suspended jail sentences and a $28 000 fine in a Dubai court after a container holding hazardous cargo exploded at Jebel Ali last year.
Five firms associated with the vessel and the shipment were also fined $28 000 each.
The court found the crew members guilty of mishandling and not taking proper care of the hazardous cargo after they allowed fumes to build up before the blast.
The three containers of organic peroxides, which arrived in Jebel Ali from China on June 27, 2021, had been stored in a terminal yard at the time of the explosion. Organic peroxides are hazardous chemicals which hold a risk of thermal runaway in high temperatures, such as those experienced in Dubai during summer.
According to Maritime Executive, more than a week after the ship arrived, the containers were loaded onto the Ocean Trader on the night of July 7.
“One of the containers began fuming and exploded aboard the vessel shortly after it had been hoisted on deck. The blast was heard throughout the Emirates and five sustained minor injuries, according to prosecutors,” Maritime Executive reported.
Prosecutors brought the criminal charges for the blast against the ship’s captain and four crew members, despite the fact that the containers had just been loaded and the initiating events had occurred on the pier.
“Prosecutors contended that the master's responsibility for stowing the containers made him liable, even though he played no role in the cargo's open pierside storage. The Dubai Misdemeanour Court found that the container involved in the blast had been left in the sun on shore for 12 days, resulting in the decomposition and heating of the cargo inside, and found all five crew members guilty,” the publication reported.
The ship’s master told the court that he would not have accepted the cargo for loading had he known about its storage conditions. He said he had safely evacuated the ship and informed authorities when the hazardous containers started to emit fumes.
