Agia Zoni II
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The Agia Zoni II was a Greek tanker . The ship leaked on September 10, 2017, sank and caused an oil spill on the Attic coast of Greece.
ship
The Agia Zoni II was built in 1972 at the Lindenau shipyard in Kiel and, as was common at the time when it was put into service, only had a single-shell hull. The ship belongs to the fleet of Agia Zoni Shipping in Athens, whose main owner is the shipowner Theodoros Kountouris. The ship sailed under the Greek flag.
According to the Equasis ship database , the classification society DNV GL had registered ten serious violations of conditions by the ship since 2008. This prompted the shipowner not to have the ship further classified by DNV GL and instead to have it monitored by the inspectors of the Greek Ministry of Shipping.
Average
On September 10, 2017, the tanker was sailing off Greece with 2,200 tons of crude oil and 370 tons of fuel . On the night of September 10-11 , 2017, the ship sank off the island of Psyttaleia in the Saronic Gulf . Coordinates: 37 ° 55 ′ 54 ″ N , 23 ° 34 ′ 1 ″ E
When it sank, the ship no longer had the required safety certificate. At the time of the accident, there were only two people on board instead of the required eleven crew members . These two, the captain and the engineer, were saved. They were first arrested and later released on bail.
Natural and environmental damage
The oil spill from the leaked crude oil and fuel initially contaminated the beaches of Salamis Island . The leak was sealed by divers, but a few days later an oil slick arrived on the coast of Piraeus. Two oil barriers were installed around the wrecked tanker to catch the oil and fuel that was running out. Volunteers cleaned the beaches and removed over 27 cubic meters of oil sludge within a week.
The coasts of the island of Salamis, the port city of Piraeus , the coastal suburbs of Agios Kosmas , Alimos , Elliniko and Glyfada were affected by the oil spill . After the disaster, the fishermen in the Saronic Gulf were instructed to avoid the waters there for the time being. The Ministry of Health issued a bathing ban in a 20 km wide strip from Piraeus to Glyfada and Salamis until the cleaning is complete. By September 14, 2017, 27 cubic meters of sea water with lumps of oil had been siphoned off from the sea, said the Greek Coast Guard .
The owner referred to the Blue Star Patmos as the cause.
Investigations
At the time of its sinking, the ship did not have a safety certificate. His existing certificate expired in July 2017. According to the relevant EU directive (417/2002 Article 4 a), the tanker was not allowed to call at any Greek port at all. The loading of the ship, in this specific case by the state-owned Hellenic Petroleum , would have been prohibited under EU regulations. However, the Greek Navy Ministry repeatedly extended the operating license for the ship. This brought research by the Greek Internet newspaper 902.gr to the public and thus refuted the statements of the Navy Minister Panagiotis Kouroublis , according to which the ship had all the permits. After the accident, it became known that the tanker had a few poorly repaired leaks in the engine room before it sank. The seafarers' union PEMEN described the ship as "extremely dangerous" and pointed out that the ship initially had a leak in the engine room.
Reactions
The Greek Naval Minister Panagiotis Kouroublis initially stated after the sinking that the Agia Zoni II had the necessary permits . The seafarers' unions asked the Greek government to finally carry out checks on the ships. They pointed out the dangerous working conditions for the employees on board, as well as the condition of many ships that were ready for scrap. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced a full investigation into all the factors involved in the accident and ordered a review of the safety certificates by the Ministry of Shipping.
Web links
- Pireas Piraeus: Agia ZONI II towing in the port of Piraeus, July 30, 2015, published July 30, 2015, youtube.com, accessed January 8, 2018, video (03:02)
- arxipelagos com: AGIA ZONI II - Chemical / Oil Products Tanker IMO: 7126152 on a coastal journey, published February 11, 2017, youtube.com, accessed January 8, 2018, video (03:25)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Agia Zoni II at Piraeusships.com
- ↑ Ship details
- ↑ a b c d e press report Tagesschau from September 13, 2017
- ↑ a b c https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Oelpest-in-der-Attischen-Riviera-3833441.html heise.de, accessed on September 17, 2017
- ↑ a b c Agia Zoni oil spill was an accident waiting to happen, experts say | Kathimerini . ( ekathimerini.com [accessed September 17, 2017]).
- ↑ a b Tasos Kokkinidis: Race against Time to Contain Oil Spillage in Saronikos Gulf, after Tanker Sinks | GreekReporter.com. Retrieved September 17, 2017 (American English).
- ↑ Sinking of a small tanker: Oil spill reaches Athens' tourist areas . In: Spiegel Online . September 14, 2017 ( spiegel.de [accessed September 18, 2017]).
- ↑ GREECE: Oil spill - Beaches around Athens at 20 km. Closed. (No longer available online.) September 18, 2017, formerly in the original ; accessed on September 18, 2017 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
