Explosion aboard MSC vessel kills crewman

   A Mediterranean Shipping Co. containership caught fire Saturday morning 1,000 miles off the coast of the United Kingdom while on route from Charleston, S.C. to Antwerp, killing one crewman, injuring three others, and leaving another missing.
   The ship, the 6,732-TEU MSC Flaminia, was abandoned by its crew in the wake of an explosion in cargo hold No. 4, with 20 crew members rescued by an oil tanker transiting nearby. The three injured crew were rescued by the MSC Stella, which deviated from its course to help its addled sister ship. Both the Flaminia and Stella are deployed on an MSC service connecting the U.S. South Atlantic and Gulf Coast with Northern Europe, the Caribbean, and Mexico.
   The three injured crew are being treated at a hospital in the Azores, an island chain in the north Atlantic.
   MSC charters the German-flagged Flaminia, built in 2001. According to Clarkson’s the vessel is owned by NSB Niederelbe Schiffahrtsges. mbH & Co. K.G. MSC said the owner had arranged to send a fire-fighting tug to the accident site to stop a fire that’s still burning aboard the ship.
   The U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) reported that the crew aboard the ship consisted of German, Polish and Filipino nationals. MCA said the distance offshore was too far for helicopters to reach.
   It’s the second incident aboard an MSC ship in two months, after the MSC Idil was rocked by an explosion near the coast of San Juan, Puerto Rico in mid-May. – Eric Johnson