Videos shared on social media show roughly 67 shipping containers falling off a cargo ship into the ocean at a pier at California’s Port of Long Beach on Tuesday. The shipping container incident prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to respond to the scene and establish a safety zone.
A video shared on X, formerly Twitter, by ABC 7 Eyewitness News shows dozens of shipping containers plunging into the water after falling off a large cargo ship as eyewitnesses respond with shock.
According to Fox 11, the containers shown in the video belonged to the “Mississippi,” a cargo ship that had recently arrived from China to Long Beach’s Pier G. The outlet noted that the U.S. Coast Guard and local police and fire departments responded to the scene after the shipping containers started falling off the cargo ship at roughly 9 a.m. Fox 11 reported that the U.S. Coast Guard established a 500-yard safety zone around the area.
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Sharing pictures from the scene in a post on social media, the U.S. Coast Guard of Northern California tweeted, “Los Angeles – Long Beach @uscg units and local partners are responding to report of containers in the water near Pier G in Long Beach this morning. Safety zone has been established.”
According to Fox 11, Art Marroquin, a Port of Long Beach spokesperson, confirmed that cargo operations at Pier G were temporarily suspended on Tuesday as responding crews attempted to secure the cargo ship’s containers. The outlet noted that while no injuries were reported from the shipping containers falling off the vessel, officials are investigating the cause of the incident.
Fox 11 reported that Unified Command confirmed that a small clean air barge connected to the cargo ship was damaged when the containers fell on Tuesday.
The U.S. Coast Guard of Northern California confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that reports indicated roughly 67 shipping containers fell off the Mississippi during the incident. The Coast Guard shared two videos of the shipping containers falling. The videos were recorded by the U.S. Coast Guard Sector LA-LB Incident Management Division.
