67 Cargo containers fall into water at Long Beach California port.

W

WhatInThe

SF VIP
Last edited:
Planes fly tons of freight. It’s most important that the weight balances the plane, so the “Loadmaster” must secure the freight, so that it doesn’t come loose or shift. I have heard of planes crashing and killing the pilots because the load shifted and the plane became imbalanced. There are also YouTube videos showing what happens if the “Loadmaster” does not do his job correctly. The “Loadmaster” has a very important job to get the freight balanced properly. Lives depend on his doing his job correctly.

One note of importance is that the planes that fly tons of freight only fly freight and no passengers. The B-747 is still flying freight, but not passengers. It was replaced by the B-777. These pilots fly both interstate and to foreign destinations. I can tell you that these pilots earn a very good living.
 
Cargo containers fall off ships frequently, mostly while at sea. It seems odd to have it happen in a port. They become hazards to navigation at sea. Sinking is a slow process and as they sink lower, they cannot be seen, but they can linger just below the surface. They would sink an ordinary sailboat. It's one of those dangers that are difficult to predict.
 
JustDave said:
Cargo containers fall off ships frequently, mostly while at sea. It seems odd to have it happen in a port. They become hazards to navigation at sea. Sinking is a slow process and as they sink lower, they cannot be seen, but they can linger just below the surface. They would sink an ordinary sailboat. It's one of those dangers that are difficult to predict.
Click to expand...
Reminds me of the Robert Redford movie All is Lost
His sailboat struck a cargo container while on autopilot as he slept
 
Naturally said:
Reminds me of the Robert Redford movie All is Lost
His sailboat struck a cargo container while on autopilot as he slept
Click to expand...
That movie was like a step by step guide to the survival steps on a sinking boat and a guide to the possible failure of those steps. And they were pretty much in the correct order as set down in the "how to" manuals. The only thing that seemed implausible was setting fire to your life raft. I have never read that one in the manuals. :)
 
My son called last night, he works for the City of Long Beach. He laughed and said
it must have been a slow news day that day, that happens about twice a week here
just not in that magnitude.
He explained that those containers each have a lock connecting them to the next one
at times the crane operator will pick one up before the lower lock is released and depending
how many are locked together it will cause that. "It's a common event", were his words.
He said..(simplified version) notice the chains around each container, each container should have a lock bottom
and top, it's always the bottom one that they miss unlocking.
 
IrishEyes said:
My son called last night, he works for the City of Long Beach. He laughed and said
it must have been a slow news day that day, that happens about twice a week here
just not in that magnitude.
Click to expand...
I wondered about that slow news day thing too. I lived on my boat in San Pedro for 6 months while I prepared for my voyage, and that is just a stone's throw from Long Beach, I used to marvel at how those huge high up cranes could maneuver around those ships picking up boxes without knocking things all over the place. If boxes are going to fall overboard, it seemed likely that would happen more around the loading docks than at sea.
 
JustDave said:
I wondered about that slow news day thing too. I lived on my boat in San Pedro for 6 months while I prepared for my voyage, and that is just a stone's throw from Long Beach, I used to marvel at how those huge high up cranes could maneuver around those ships picking up boxes without knocking things all over the place. If boxes are going to fall overboard, it seemed likely that would happen more around the loading docks than at sea.
Click to expand...
I used to love going to the old Fisherman's Village out there. The shops, food, watching boats. Ed tells me that is horrible now, I would be
quite disappointed to see it now. That's sad.
 
IrishEyes said:
I used to love going to the old Fisherman's Village out there. The shops, food, watching boats. Ed tells me that is horrible now, I would be
quite disappointed to see it now. That's sad.
Click to expand...
I haven't been back there for over 20 years, but even then it was too crowded for me. It's just that my circumstances required me to be there. But since I was a little kid, Southern Cal has grown from a quite countryside of orange groves to what it was 20 years ago when I was there, and San Pedro had city blocks cordoned off as crime scenes while the police were investigating shootings on at least two occasions during the 6 months I was there. I've never been around that much growth including when I grew up in Chicago.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top