"The blast tore through the engine room of the tanker MKD Vyom without warning on the morning of 1 March. There were immense shock waves and a fireball, says Basis*, a seafarer on one of the first ships to suffer a fatal attack in the Gulf of Oman during the US and Israeli airstrikes against Iran. For one or two seconds, I was knocked out, he says. Everything went black. The power was gone. I looked up fire and thick black smoke was pouring down."
"Shocked by the explosion, he tried to make sense of what was happening, before realising he needed to escape and quickly. The engine room had been destroyed. There were metal pipes, insulation covers, tanks, torn apart. A 2cm-thick solid fire door, glass windows bang, all gone. I thought: I'm alive. I have to get out of here.'"
"The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker MKD Vyom had been bound for Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia, from Amsterdam via the strait of Hormuz. Amid the escalating conflict, the ship had been instructed to stop, report anything suspicious and await further instructions, Basis says. More than 100 miles from Iran, very far from the strait and with no ships nearby, no one was unduly worried, he says."
"At the time Basis had no idea that, two hours before the MKD Vyom was hit, another tanker, the Skylight, had come under attack, killing one seafarer and leaving another missing. He recalls how, despite almost suffocating from the thick black smoke that burned his throat and lung"
A tanker in the Gulf of Oman was hit without warning, producing immense shock waves and a fireball. A seafarer on an early-affected ship was knocked out for one or two seconds, with everything going black and power disappearing. When he regained awareness, fire and thick black smoke poured down, and he realized the engine room had been destroyed. Metal pipes, insulation, tanks, and a solid fire door were torn apart, and glass windows were gone. He focused on staying alive and getting out quickly. The tanker had been instructed to stop, report suspicious activity, and await further instructions, though it was far from the strait and had no nearby ships. Two hours earlier, another tanker had been attacked, causing a death and a missing person.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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