’Selendang Ayu’

December 2004

The Malaysian flagged 225 metres long cargo vessel suffered a main engine breakdown, drifted without power, grounded and eventually broke in two off the coast of
Western Unalaska Island.

SMIT mobilised a salvage team to inspect the casualty. A complicated operation commenced to pump the oil from the vessel’s various compartments into tank containers which were placed on the deck of the vessel by helicopters. Each container was filled with 2.5 tonnes of recovered oil and then transported back to the shore by
the helicopters for further handling.

An extra complication was the extreme weather situation, but the operation was successfully completed and approximately
1600 tonnes of intermediate fuel and diesel oil were recovered.