Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Lithuania, Transport

This is forecast by DSV Transport Eesti manager Jaan Lepp who lost four trailers with goods on board the ship that burned down in German waters on Friday.

Lepp said that the case will not fit under the terms of carrier’s liability insurance as it wasn’t an accident that took place on highways or while goods were loaded. The naval transport convention protects the ship owners and takes responsibility from them only. “There will be a lot of headache here, for sure,” he said.

Estonia’s largest cargo hauler DSV Transport had four trailers on board the ship that sailed under the Lithuanian flag and it had subcontracts with different Estonian cargo carrier firms to transport the trailers.

Lepp said that this is not the end of the world of them since it survives losing 4 out of the 200 trailers it has but it may be a blow to smaller highway carriers who only have 1 or two 2 trucks that burnt in the accident.

Six Estonian truck drivers were rescued from the ship and everything is fine with them, said Estonian foreign ministry.

The passenger ship on its way from Keil to Klaipeda caught fire late Friday night. 249 passengers were on board, all of them were rescued, 23 were hospitalised but the cargo on board all burned to ground.

On October 9, all the people who were onboard DFDS LISCO GLORIA when it was set on fire by an explosion en route from Kiel (Germany) to Klaipeda (Lithuania) were successfully evacuated. A big fire broke out in the upper deck at night when the vessel was at a distance of around 26 nautical miles from the Port of Kiel. Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre Bremen carried out the evacuation operation with the help from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre of Lithuania and Lithuania's institutions, reported BC the Ministry of National Defence.

Ten vessels were involved in the rescue operation. All the passengers and crew of DFDS LISCO GLORIA were carried to the Port of Kiel by ferry DEUTCHLAND. Fire fighting units concentrated on site are still making efforts to distinguish the fire.