That Time a Huge Containership Ran Straight Into a Hong Kong Football Field

There are those times when shipping accidents occur way out at sea, far out of view to majority of the public. Then there at those other times when accidents happen in plain sight in the middle of one of the most densely populated cities on earth.

Like this video here, which shows that time in April 2014 when the 610-foot containership Hansa Constitution veered off course in Hong Kong’s busy East Lamma shipping channel and ran straight into a football field at the University of Hong Kong. Luckily for internet viewers, several of the thousands of residents lining the waterfront saw the accident unfolding and grabbed their cameras to record.

As you can see the crew did their best to stop the ship from hitting shore with too much oomph, but in the end it just wasn’t enough. The accident was actually blamed on a combination of power loss and wind, and the vessel spent only a short time aground before it was backed off the seawall and taken a local anchorage for inspection. Fortunately no injuries or pollution was reported.

Here’s another view:

gCaptain’s earlier report on this incident can be found in the archives HERE.