A car transport ship with a haul of thousands of Porsches, Bentleys, Audis and other brands from the Volkswagen Group caught fire in the mid-Atlantic and went adrift off the Azores Islands, with the Portuguese Navy rescuing the vessel's 22 crew members.
Shipping in the area was warned that the 200-meter-long (650-feet-long) Felicity Ace was adrift near Portugal’s Azores Islands after the crew was taken off on Wednesday, Portuguese navy spokesperson Cmdr. Jose Sousa Luis said.
The Felicity Ace can carry more than 17,000 metric tons (18,700 tons) of cargo. Typically, car transport ships fit thousands of vehicles on multiple decks in their hold, with the Felicity Ace having a capacity to carry more than 4,000 vehicles.
Volkswagen Group said in a brief statement the Felicity Ace was transporting to the U.S. vehicles that the German automaker produced. The company declined to comment on what consequences the incident might have for U.S. customers or the VW Group.
The Panamanian-flagged ship’s operator, Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, said in an email to The Associated Press (AP) it could not provide information about the cargo.
Automotive and navigation websites reported that the vessel was carrying 1,100 Porsche and 200 Bentley luxury vehicles.
A Portuguese navy ship sailed to the vehicle transporter, which was sailing from Emden in Germany to the port of Davisville in the U.S. state of Rhode Island, according to online vessel trackers. A navy statement said the fire was still burning and showed a photograph of large clouds of white smoke billowing out.
The navy ship was to check whether the cargo vessel was in danger of sinking or causing pollution, Sousa Luis told AP.
The ship's owner is seeking an ocean-going tug, but the Felicity Ace is unlikely to be towed to a port in Portugal’s Azores Islands because of its size, Sousa Luis said.
The crew were taken by helicopter on Wednesday to Faial Island on the archipelago, about 170 kilometers (100 miles) away, and are staying at a hotel there. None of them was hurt.
The Russian and Filipino crew was initially evacuated to the oil tanker Resilient Warrior, which was diverted to help in the rescue operation, before being flown by military helicopter to Faial, RTP reported.
The Felicity Ace reported a fire in the hold when it was 90 nautical miles southwest of Faial. The blaze "continued to spread" during Thursday, the port captain at Horta a Faial, Joao Manuel Mendes Cabecas, told public channel RTP.
He added that tugs were expected to arrive on Monday from Gibraltar to tow away the giant ship.