Today (Tuesday), experts started preparations to finally move vehicles and heavy plant machinery that were stuck on the Hoegh Osaka car transporter.
The bigger portion of the 1, 400 luxury vehicles and 105 pieces of plant equipment, aboard the large vessel berthed at the Southampton Docks, should be driven off in the next couple of days according to expectations.
This news come following a statement made by the inspector in charge of the investigation that the 51, 000-tonne ship has sustained minor damage and owners having expressed their intention of bringing it back into service once the necessary repairs are completed.
During last night, teams attempted to move a large quarrying machine that was blocking the entrance so that they could create a risk-free pathway for the other vehicles aboard. Owners Hoegh commented that the rescue mission is going according to schedule. A spokesperson for the company further said:
“We hope that we could begin discharging the cargo and complete the tasks at hand by end of this current week or early next week.”
He commented that most of the vehicles have been held in place by their lashings, excluding a few large ones located at the main deck. He also added that despite previous preliminary estimates, there was a smaller number of vehicles immersed by the water leaking into the below decks.
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) are preparing reports after having completed their initial inspections.
The vessel had been deliberately ran aground on Bramble Bank, close to Southampton, on the 3rd of January after it had begun listing not long after having left the port. Salvage crews carried out the biggest rescue mission in the history of the Solent waters in order to bring back the ship to port on Thursday last week.