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Who owns Coral Crystal? Cargo vessel briefly stuck in Suez Canal sparks meme fest

Taking a dig at the incident, social media users expressed 'disappointment' over Suez Canal not getting blocked 'long enough to have fun'

Deja vu in Suez canal! A cargo vessel got briefly stuck in Suez Canal on Thursday, September 9 and sparked a meme fest on the internet. The Panama-flagged Coral Crystal ran aground and briefly blocked the global shipping lane before it was refloated, almost six months after Ever Given blocked Suez Canal for six days. Taking a dig at the incident, social media users expressed 'disappointment' over Suez Canal not getting blocked 'long enough to have fun'.

The cargo vessel ran aground in a double-lane stretch 33 miles into the canal, as a result of which, other vessels in the convoy had to be directed to the other lane. The canal's tugboats, however, managed to float the south-bound vessel, which carried cargo weighing 43,000 tons and then Coral Crystal resumed its voyage to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. It was not immediately clear what caused the cargo vessel to run aground. This brief blockage of the Suez Canal brought back memories of a six-day rescue operation when Ever Given got stuck and stopped £42billion of world trade. The massive rescue operation had ended in one person's death, sunk a rescue boat and forced 48 ships to find an alternative route. 

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Suez Canal Authority (SCA) noted in a statement that "a bulk carrier briefly became stuck in the northern section of the Suez Canal on Thursday but was refloated and there was no impact on traffic" and that the incident was "handled with the utmost professionalism". SCA had to temporarily suspend navigation in one lane of the global waterway while work to free the ship was going on. Four ships going towards Suez from Port Said had to be diverted into a separate lane as a result of the blockage.

Who owns Coral Crystal?

Built in 2012, with a length of nearly 738ft (225 metres) and a width of over 104ft (32m), Coral Crystal is a Panama-flagged bulk carrier with a carrying capacity of 78103 t DWT. According to a vessel-tracking firm, Traffic Marine, the vessel was en route to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. The ownership detail of the Coral Crystal was not immediately available. 

'Another boat got stuck in the Suez Canal'

Twitter users poked fun at Suez Canal being obstructed second time in one year and posted tweets like, "The fact that another ship got stuck in the suez canal but it wasn’t even long enough for us to have fun with it is just rude" Another person tweeted, "Me finding out another boat got stuck in the Suez Canal / me finding out they already refloated it and we won’t get another week of boat memes" One tweet read, "Men will literally block the Suez Canal to avoid going back into the office" Another user wrote, "If I had a nickel for every time the Suez Canal was obstructed I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice." One user said, "It sounds like the Suez Canal needs a colonoscopy!" Another tweet read, "An action movie where they have to bring the guy out of retirement to get the ship stuck in the Suez Canal unstuck every year."