ACES

scrapped

General information

Course/Position

Latest news

Scrap ship on fire again one year after disaster struck

After the tragic accident on the "Aces" in Gadani st scrapping site No. 54 on Nov 1, 2016, in which 31 workers were killed and 58 injured, when a violent explosion hit the ship, the work has been stopped. The area around the ship had been immediately closed by the Pakistani authorities and workers in the yard protested over working conditions and the lack of government support in terms of legislation on safety and health at work. But soon after it was resumed on Nov 8, 2017, after after the Pakistani Environment Department last week authorized the resumption of the work, the ship was on fire again on the very first working day. Oil residues inside the ship had not been removed and were alight. This time all workers could be taken to safety and nobody was injured. "It is clear that no-one has learned any of the tragedies that have hit Gadani last year," Muhammad Irfan Khan, a member of the NGO Shipbeaking Platform Board, said. Local authorities have now launched an investigation to review the permit to resume the scrapping of the tanker. At the same time all work on the ship has been stopped again.

Smuggled oils partly to blame for Gadani tragedy

ISLAMABAD: A cabinet minister has conceded that smuggled lubricants and petroleum products were to blame for the deadly ship as the fed the blaze on the decommissioned Japanese vessel for four days. Officially, 26 labourers were killed and more than 50 wounded when a series of explosions onboard 24,000-ton MT Aces triggered a huge fire on Nov 1. Unofficially however, the death toll has been much higher. “A huge quantity of lubricants smuggled by the ship owner had caught fire due to mishandling of work managers,” Ports and Shipping Minister Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo told The Express Tribune. “According to the Customs rules and regulations, decommissioned vessels are only allowed to carry a fixed quantity of oil required for their voyage from a port of departure to Gadani shipbreaking yard in Pakistan,” he added. http://tribune.com.pk/story/1233922/explosive-revelation-smuggled-oils-partly-blame-gadani-tragedy/

29 deaths, 60 injured after fire in Gadani

29 deaths had been confirmed in the fire aboard the "Aces" with 60 workers reported injured, seven still being in a critical condition. This was apart from the undetermined number of labourers who have been missing since Nov 1 when the tragedy struck. There were over 150 workers in the blazing ship when the conflagration broke out. The reason further details could not be determined was because an eyewitness, Farooq, has been arrested and whisked off to a secret location. The lead contractor Gulzameen – who kept a record of the workers and was perhaps the only man who could have known the exact number that day — died in one of the explosions. No other documentation has so far been found anywhere.