Missing bulker officer vanished after saving 28 from burning 11,800-TEU
Portugal’s GAMA investigates the disappearance of the Aeolian Arrow’s chief officer during a South Atlantic rescue.
A chief officer from the Portuguese-flagged bulk carrier Aeolian Arrow remains missing after a high-risk rescue operation in the South Atlantic, where all 28 crew members of a burning containership were saved. The incident, now under investigation by Portugal’s Maritime Accident Investigation Office (GAMA), has been classified as a very serious maritime casualty.
The emergency response began on October 15, when the Aeolian Arrow received a distress call from the Espirito Santo Express, a Singapore-flagged vessel owned by Seaspan and chartered by Hapag-Lloyd. The 330-meter containership, capable of transporting around 11,900 TEU, had caught fire while sailing from Singapore to Santos, Brazil. The origin of the blaze has not yet been determined.
Facing rough sea conditions, the Aeolian Arrow deployed its rescue boat to retrieve the crew of the Espirito Santo Express. Nineteen sailors were recovered from a lifeboat, while another nine were brought aboard from a life raft. However, as the rescue boat was being hoisted back onto the bulk carrier, the chief officer was swept overboard.
Hapag-Lloyd
Rescue efforts and tragic loss: containership fire
According to GAMA, the officer was seen alive in the water, but repeated attempts to rescue him failed before he vanished from view. The Espirito Santo Express, built in 2018, was left adrift in the South Atlantic following the evacuation. Salvage experts SMIT have since been engaged under Lloyd’s Open Form terms to secure the vessel, though Hapag-Lloyd and Ocean Network Express continue to assess the damage to the ship and its cargo.
The investigation will examine both the circumstances of the chief officer’s disappearance and the cause of the fire. While GAMA has not released additional details, the classification of the event as a very serious maritime casualty underscores its gravity. This incident follows another major containership fire less than two weeks earlier, raising concerns about the frequency and risks of such emergencies at sea.
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