A Bangladesh Petroleum Company (BPC) investigation committee has stated that a severe explosion could well additionally honest possess took place attributable to the buildup of flammable gasoline within the Fore Peak Store positioned on the entrance of the Bangladesh Shipping Company’s ship, MT Bangla Jyoti, at Chattogram port.
The seven-member committee introduced its legend the day gone by (30 September), the identical day the accident took place, which killed three people.
The Fore Peak Store, positioned on the entrance of the ship, is a storage dwelling for ropes, anchors, and spare system. It changed into in this dwelling that the explosion, fireplace, and tragic lack of three lives took characteristic. The BPC legend indicated that the entrance of the vessel sustained significant concern. The investigation legend changed into submitted to the BPC chairman, a reproduction of which changed into obtained by TBS.
The seven-member investigation committee, shaped by the BPC, introduced their findings on the identical day of the accident, 30 September, which resulted within the deaths of Deck Cadet Saurabh Kumar Saha from Jhenaidah, BSC Foreman Nurul Islam from Chattogram, and employee Md Harun from Kishoreganj. The victims had been approach the Fore Peak Store on the time of the explosion. The accident took characteristic rapidly after roughly 800 metric hundreds coarse oil changed into transferred from the ship.
Constant with the legend, 10,916.446 metric hundreds coarse oil remained onboard, but changed into left unaffected within the fireplace. Had the fireplace unfold to the cargo tank, the priority could well additionally had been catastrophic.
The fireplace, captured on CCTV footage from the Eastern Refinery Shrimp (ERL) jetty, erupted at 10:54am. The footage showed a ample explosion on the entrance of the ship, prompting quick response from various agencies collectively with the Fire Provider and Civil Defence, Chittagong Port Authority, Bangladesh Hover Guard, Karnaphuli Tunnel authorities, Bangladesh Air Power, and Bangladesh Navy. The fireplace changed into introduced under preserve an eye fixed on after about 90 minutes, spherical 12:30pm.
The committee made four solutions, collectively with the formation of a technical committee by the Bangladesh Shipping Company to discover the particular motive on the support of the accident, assess the priority, and evaluate the protection of the leisure two lighter vessels.
The BSC’s lighter vessels, MT Bangla Jyoti and MT Bangla Sourav, are dilapidated for coarse oil lightering operations attributable to the risks associated with the quick exercise of single point mooring (SPM) with double pipeline systems for coarse oil discharge. The legend advised that polishing off the appointment of an Operation and Maintenance (O&M) contractor as soon as conceivable would allow the protected discharge of coarse oil.
Moreover, the legend called for extra modernization of the fireplace-combating systems at jetties and educated BSC to discover whether or now not MT Bangla Jyoti could well additionally continue to be dilapidated till the O&M contractor is in characteristic.
Timeline leading up to the accident
The mom vessel, MT Omera Legacy, carrying Marban coarse oil, arrived at Kutubdia’s outer anchorage on 17 September. Wrong oil lightering operations started on 19 September. MT Bangla Jyoti, the fifth lightering vessel, started mooring at DOJ-7 on 30 September at 8:30am. By 9:45am, a registered surveyor from ERL (M/s. Oceantech Shrimp) confirmed the quantity of coarse oil onboard, amounting to 11,716.446 metric heaps. Cargo discharge commenced at 10:00am, lawful before the explosion took place.
In a press convention on Monday afternoon, BSC Managing Director Commodore Mahmudul Malek stated that the explosion seemingly took place attributable to the buildup of gasoline whereas crew contributors had been making rope adjustments on the ship. This changed into adopted by the fireplace. He wired that extra investigation is required to verify these findings.
BSC Executive Director (Skills), Eng. Mohammad Yusuf, is leading a seven-member committee tasked with identifying the basis motive on the support of the explosion and recommending steps to terminate identical incidents within the long urge.
A 2d committee, comprising 5 contributors, has been shaped to handle the connected matters, collectively with burial preparations, compensation, and toughen for the victims’ families.
The legend states, the Division of Explosives will conduct extra inspections to clarify that the protection of the vessel, with a highlight on clearing the leisure cargo. If the ship is deemed protected, the discharge of the leisure cargo, which is anticipated to rob spherical 22 hours, will proceed. Once the cargo is offloaded, the ship will seemingly be moved for repair and overhaul.
MT Bangla Jyoti and MT Bangla Sourav, each constructed in 1987, had been in carrier for 37 years. With no quick replacements accessible, the ships had been saved operational via ongoing repairs.
BPC recordsdata reveals that coarse oil for the Eastern Refinery Shrimp is imported from Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, and lightered the exercise of BSC’s vessels, MT Bangla Jyoti and MT Bangla Sourav, under a bilateral Lighterage Agreement.
