Cargo ship carrying electric vehicles sinks off Alaskan coast weeks after fire

A cargo ship carrying electric and hybrid cars has sunk off the coast of Alaska, weeks after a fire led its crew to evacuate.

A fire broke out on the Morning Midas about 300 miles south of Adak, Alaska, on June 3, the Coast Guard said, and its 22 crew members escaped via lifeboat before being picked up by a good Samaritan ship that responded to the scene. 

The Morning Midas was carrying 3,048 cars, 681 of them hybrids and 70 fully electric, when it sank Monday about 450 miles southwest of Adak, the Coast Guard said. It sank to a depth of 16,400 feet in international waters.

In addition to the cars, the Morning Midas, a Liberian-flagged vessel managed by U.K. company Zodiac Maritime, still had 350 metric tons of marine gas oil and 1,530 metric tons of very low sulfur oil at the time it sank.

“Damage caused by the fire, compounded by heavy weather and subsequent water ingress, caused the Morning Midas to sink … All operations continue to prioritize the safety of personnel and the protection of the marine environment,” Zodiac Maritime said in a statement, according to Marine Log.

The Coast Guard did not say what caused the fire, which eventually burned out. Tugboats arrived on June 11 and June 16 to help hold the Morning Midas in place, according to Maritime Executive.