What Crew Members Say About Km.-Sulawesi-Leader

The "Asian Leader" was and adrift in Andaman sea west of Lampi National Park islands, Myanmar, on July 11, 2015. It was drifting towards the Lampi National Park and was 30 miles off the nearest islands on July 14 around midnight in a fresh southwest wind. The "Asian Leader" was en route from Kolkata to Singapore.

In the second such incident in the last 12 months, three ships collided on Monday at Garden Reach General Anchorage Point, which is under the purview of Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT), reported the Hindustan Times. The incident happened around 12:30 pm. Since all the vessels were almost empty, no major damage occurred. There was no fire as none of the vessels were carrying explosives or a cargo of oil, sources said. "There are no threats of environmental hazards. There are no casualties or injuries. “However, all the ships were taken back to the port for repair work," a KoPT spokesperson said. According to him, the accident took place when Asian Leader, a vehicle-carrier vessel from Panama, was leaving the dock. "Mandena, an Antiguan ship, and Siphon Voyager, a Malaysian vessel, were anchored at the dock. Asian Leader collided with the two," he said. The ships suffered minor snags. Mandena's crane took a blow and Asian Leader's hull got a crack. Some of the containers Mandena was carrying got damaged. This is the second time during the last one year that a major accident was averted at the KoPT waterfront. Last year in November, two container ships, Tiger Spring and Green Valley got damaged near Nurpur in South 24 Parganas after one ship rammed into the other, which was moving in the opposite direction. However, even that time there were no casualties. The river pilot on one of the ships moved the damaged vessel to a sandbank near the shore and prevented the ship from sinking.