FPCL probes near-miss grounding of Queen of Melbourne

The Fiji Ports Corporation Limited (FPCL) has found that unmanned and poor supervision by the vessel owner of Queen of Melbourne, was one of the reasons the vessel had almost run aground along Marine Drive, Lautoka.

The incident took place at around 2pm on October 22, when FPCL personnel noticed the vessel had almost run aground and immediately notified the relevant authorities.

“Preliminary findings indicate that the vessel likely drifted after dragging its anchor, having remained stationary in the area for a prolonged period,” FPCL said.

FPCL’s Lautoka Team immediately initiated communications with the vessel’s owner, Global Holdings, and coordinated with Port of Lautoka operations to facilitate removal efforts.”

The vessel has been successfully repositioned to deeper waters on October 29.

FPCL had conducted a full incident evaluation and also found that anchoring failure was also one of the contributing factors for the near – miss ground incident.

A joint meeting was convened between FPCL, the Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji (MSAF), and the Ministry of Environment to assess the situation and determine appropriate action.

Following the meeting, Global Holdings arranged tugboat assistance through South Seas Towage Limited (SSTL), and the vessel was successfully towed back to safe waters without further incident.

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