A Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) containership that suffered an engine room fire off the coast of Sri Lanka in late June has arrived in Singapore for repairs.
The fire aboard the 4,743-teu MSC Messina (built 1995) occurred on 25 June 2021 in the Bay of Bengal, while the ship was enroute from Sri Lanka to Singapore.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) confirmed that the Liberia-registered containership had arrived in the city state.
After the fire was put out, the MSC Messina was towed to Singapore for repairs and cargo operations. It arrived on 6 July to discharge containers, before it entered an unnamed shipyard for repair works.
The MPA said it had also facilitated the repatriation of the body of a deceased crew member to his country of domicile, but gave no further details.
MSC told TradeWinds at the time of the incident that one member of crew was reported as missing during the casualty and that it was is in contact with the seafarer’s family. No further details would be disclosed at that time.
“Six members of the MSC Messina crew are currently serving their 14-day stay-home notice [SHN] at an SHN dedicated facility,” the MPA said.
“They will return to the ship upon completion of the SHN and negative polymerase chain reaction [PCR] tests, and thereafter be placed under rostered routing testing.”
The MPA added that the ship’s agent had “made arrangements” for the remaining crew to sign off and return to their country of domicile.
