The Port of Tyne is continuing salvage and environmental recovery efforts after the July 19 collision between Cadeler’s wind turbine installation vessel Wind Orca and the berthed container ship BG Orange.
The accident occurred as Wind Orca was departing the dock, causing a quayside gantry crane to collapse onto BG Orange. Two damaged containers released large quantities of plastic resin pellets, known as nurdles, into the River Tyne, with an estimated more than one billion pellets washing up along the northeast coast of England.
The contamination has spread across beaches from South Shields and North Tyneside to Northumberland and Sunderland, prompting an extensive clean-up operation involving floating containment booms and recovery vessels.
As part of the recovery effort, the Port of Tyne temporarily closed a section of the River Tyne between Royal Quays and the River Don to allow salvage teams to separate the collapsed crane from BG Orange before moving the vessel into the river. The damaged containers have already been emptied of the remaining plastic pellets.
The crane operator involved in the incident was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while no injuries were reported among the crew of Wind Orca.
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch, Northumbria Police and the Statutory Harbour Authority are investigating the cause of the collision. At the time of the incident, Wind Orca was supporting Ørsted’s Hornsea 3 offshore wind project, using the Port of Tyne as a logistics base for secondary steel components.
