Ballast Water System Failure Sank MSC Ship – Indian Authorities

India’s Director General (DG) of Shipping Shyam Jagannathan has disclosed that the sunken wreck of container ship MSC Elsa 3 has been declared a state-specific disaster by Kerala.

Jagannathan told a news conference on Wednesday, “Our primary inference is that the vessel sank due to mechanical failure of the ballast management system.”

The MSC Elsa 3 was on a voyage Vizhinjam to Kochi when it developed a 26 degree starboard list on 24 May and the vessel sank on the morning of 25 May.

“We have no evidence of other reasons. Failure of the ballast system may be due to lack of operational understanding. When the vessel listed to 26 degrees, there was a complete blackout due to failure of internal power generation. This virtually incapacitated all operations of the ship,” Chief Surveyor of Union government Ajith Sukumaran, was reported as saying.

All 24 crew onboard the 1997-built, Liberia-flagged, MSC Elsa 3 were safely evacuated by the Indian Navy and Coast Guard before it sank.

The ship had 640 containers onboard and around 100 of these have floated away from the wreck with half reaching the shore. “Most of these containers are empty while some had waste cotton and plastic nodules. A 108-member team from T&T Salvage, a US firm engaged by the shipping company (MSC) is engaged in coastal cleaning,” he said.

On Thursday the Government of Kerala declared the wreck of the MSC Elsa 3 a “state-specific disaster”. An order by the Disaster Management Department of the State government said: “Considering the potentially serious environmental, social, and economic impact of the ship wreckage, Government hereby declare the wreckage of the ship MSC Elsa 3 in the Arabian Sea 14.6 nautical miles off the Kerala coast a State-specific disaster.”

Meanwhile , the Philippines is seeking to repatriate 20 of its nationals who were crew onboard the MSC Elsa 3.

The Philippines Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said temporary travel documents were being processed for the 20 seafarers who were currently staying in a hotel in Kochi.

The 1997-built MSC Elsa 3 is owned and managed by the world’s largest container shipping company Geneva-based MSC, according to Equasis. The 28-year-old vessel’s last Port State Control inspection was in Mangalore on 19 November 2024 when 5 deficiencies were found.