NOVA

March 23, 2021.

The Ever Given,

one of the largest container ships

ever built...

...plows into the bank of the Suez Canal.

The only thing that ran through my mind was, "Oh, my God."

I posted the picture,

and my sister's like, "It's all over the news."

It completely blocks

one of the most important shipping lanes

in the world for nearly a week,

triggering a global emergency.

No one had had a vessel the size of Ever Given

run aground in the way Ever Given did.

Now, eye witnesses speak out for the first time.

It was life-changing, I think it changed

the perspective of a lot of people on board.

And using clues from former maritime disasters...

He stayed there

to the very last minute

to try to save the life of this one seaman.

New documents,

expert analysis,

and never-before-seen footage...

We thought the ship was going to collide with us.

I ordered everybody off the stern.

We investigate what really happened.

You're dealing with a machine, really, that is

one of the largest machines ever created by man.

Was this a freak accident?

And how can we stop a disaster like this

from ever happening again?

The Ever Given was a wakeup call to everybody.

And if those ships don't arrive,

you can shut down an economy.

If you didn't get the message from the Ever Given,

you weren't paying attention.

Right now, on "NOVA"...

"Why Ships Crash."

The Suez Canal...

a 120-mile artery that runs through the heart of Egypt,

linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.

A shortcut that saves ships thousands of miles,

and several weeks of sea time.

: We have 18,000 ships

pass through each year.

We are the most important maritime route in the world.

Hundreds of thousands of containers

loaded with critical supplies:

fuel, food, and medical equipment

depend on this man-made waterway,

a narrow strip of water stretching improbably

through Egypt's Eastern Desert.

10:15 a.m. local time,

March 9, 2021.

The container ship Ever Given sets sail from

the south coast of China, loaded with more than

700 million dollars' worth of cargo and consumer goods.

Operated by the Evergreen Marine shipping company,

it's nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall,

and capable of carrying 20,000 containers,

one of the biggest container ships in the world.

It's scheduled to spend the next 23 days

sailing halfway around the world

to deliver its cargo to ports in Europe.

To get there,

it must pass through the series of lakes

and narrow channels that make up the Suez Canal.

The Ever Given arrives at the Southern mouth

of the Suez at 6:00 p.m. on the 22nd of March.

Captain Reda Ahmed oversees this section of the Canal.

: I was working as the head

of sea traffic in Port Tawfik.

Reda is a veteran mariner

who has worked with the Suez Canal Authority for 26 years.

He manages a team of local maritime pilots,

expert sailors who board

every vessel to help guide it through the canal.

In the south, the waterway is too narrow

for big ships to pass each other,

so Reda organizes the vessels heading north

into one-way convoys sailing single file.

The speed of the ships at the front of the convoy

is different to the speed of the ships

at the back of the convoy.

It's slow moving, it's a very long day.

It's the last major obstacle

before you're going back across the Atlantic, headed...

headed home.

Julianne Cona is on the ship directly

behind the Ever Given, the Maersk Denver.

With eight years' experience,

Julianne has sailed the Suez a dozen times before,

working as an engineer in the ship's engine room.

Being aboard these vessels,

it can be challenging at times.

Things constantly are changing,

but you kind of learn to roll with it.

For the biggest ships, navigating the Suez

is a serious challenge.

You've got land on both sides of you,

you've got a ship in front of you and a ship behind you,

and the slightest misstep on anybody's part

could end in a maritime accident.

At 7:00 a.m., the Ever Given sets course

from the Gulf of Suez to the canal entrance,

as part of a convoy of 20 ships.

The Maersk Denver is just ten minutes behind.

I got on watch at midnight and from then on,

it was calm, calm, and then the wind started coming.

Ernie Caponegro has been a licensed officer for six years,

sailing cargo ships all over the world.

Wind picked up suddenly from

a light breeze to around 20 knots,

and it just continued on up from there.

By the time the Ever Given enters the canal,

the wind is gusting at gale force.

That's when it started to become a little more concerning.

It may seem like a ship as massive as the Ever Given

would be unaffected by wind,

but its tall sides can act like a sail,

pushing it sideways and making it difficult

to maintain its position.

When you have a vessel that's equal to a 15-story building

above the waterline,

and as long as nearly four football pitches,

this is a vessel that, if it is blowing and gusting wind,

she is going to move around.

That vessel needed to be dead center in the canal.

There's very little room for margin of error.

Satellite tracking data shows

that the northbound convoy makes steady progress.

But the data also reveals something

is wrong with the Ever Given.

At 7:18 a.m., the ship is off the center line,

too close to the west bank.

Then, 16 minutes later,

it runs dangerously close to the east bank.

At 7:38, it finally loses control.

On the bridge, the crew shout,

"We might be grounding... Stand by."

The bow of the 219,000-ton ship...

...crashes into the east bank of the Suez Canal.

With the bow of the Ever Given aground,

and all steering control lost,

the wind and current now pushes the stern

right across the canal, until it wedges

into the other bank.

The Ever Given is firmly lodged,

blocking the entire Suez Canal.

What caused the accident is a mystery.

On the Maersk Denver,

Ernie and the rest of the crew can't believe their eyes.

The only thing that ran through my mind was, "Oh, my God."

Oh crap, I guess

I'm not going home.

Ernie and Julianne are now

steaming directly towards the Ever Given.

My vessel was weighing 110,000 gross tons.

Stopping that with 35 to 40 knots of wind,

plus a two knot following current,

not exactly an easy feat.

The captain of the Maersk Denver

reacts fast and throws the engines in reverse.

It was the first time in my career I'd ever seen

a complete full astern bell.

It's not very often that you're going

as fast as you can backwards.

The ship stops just a few hundred feet before

it plows into the Ever Given.

But the ship directly behind them,

the Asia Ruby III, is in serious trouble.

Something in the back of my head said, "Turn around and look."

And when I turned around, the Asia Ruby III was maybe

a football field away.

This phone footage shows

the nearly 70,000-ton ship

heading right towards the Maersk Denver.

We thought the ship was going to collide with us.

I ordered everybody off the stern.

The Denver's captain quickly guns the throttle.

Their ship slowly moves forwards,

away from the Ruby.

They narrowly avoid a catastrophic pile up.

If the ship behind us had hit us,

they could have very easily just disabled us,

sending the ship barreling towards the Ever Given.

Once safely anchored, the crew can fully grasp

the scale of the accident.

I called my family

and my sister's, like, "It's all over the news."

More and more ships are waiting.

Some captains are even

considering taking the 6,000 kilometer detour around Africa.

The shockwaves from this accident

are felt across the globe.

About 12% of world trade

passes through the Suez Canal.

Even a short blockage results in delivery delays

of crucial food, fuel, and medical supplies.