Containers fall into Duwamish River during Matson offloading at Terminal 5

| Helicopter | Port of Seattle | West Seattle news

(Added: Photo of containers, courtesy Clayton LaPlant)

Thanks for the inquiries about the helicopters over the north end of the Duwamish River. They were TV choppers checking out an incident about which we have just obtained information. A spokesperson for Matson tells WSB:

Two shipping containers – both empty – were knocked into the water this afternoon at Port of Seattle T-5 during discharge (unloading) of our vessel Mahimahi.

No injuries and no reports of damage. We’re working on recovering the containers now. Vessel operations/schedule were unaffected and apparently no impact on waterway navigation / harbor ops.

(WSB photo: Matson’s Mahimahi, photographed from westbound West Seattle “low bridge” this afternoon)

Matson moved its weekly Seattle calls to T-5 back in April as an interim tenant while the terminal modernization project gets going. (Speaking of which, tomorrow is the Jack Block Park open house for info about the project, 9:30-11:30 am Saturday.)

AMD June 21, 2019 (7:30 pm)

I feel like this question is obvious. but… HOW????

Bradley June 22, 2019 (2:56 am)

Gravity.
LyndaB June 22, 2019 (9:04 am)

Right!?! Like did someone sneeze? 😂😂😂

Jen June 23, 2019 (12:10 pm)

I thought for sure the containers would sink once they hit the water. How do they float?

dsa June 23, 2019 (1:13 pm)

The question is how long did they float or how were they retrieved?

Sam June 24, 2019 (11:28 pm)

They have rubber gaskets on the doors. If empty they can float for a long, long, long time. Probably got picked out of the water with a crane mounted on a barge.

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