Another ship got stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking traffic for a few hours

Following the incident, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) accelerated the construction of a second channel in the canal, allowing ships to pass in both directions. However, the works are expected to be completed only by 2023, so the news of another ship running aground did have the authorities on tenterhooks for a while.

Affinity V is an 820 feet (250 m) long and is 147 feet (45 m) wide oil tanker. The 64,000-ton oil tanker is owned by a Singaporean company. It had sailed from Portugal and was en route to the port of Yanbu in Saudi Arabia's the Red Sea.

While passing through the Suez Canal, the ship's rudder suffered a technical failure which affected its ability to steer itself, the Suez Canal Authority said in a press release. The ship ran aground near the 143 km mark in the canal at around 7:15 pm local time, which began blocking traffic at the canal.

The SCA's salvage units and tugboats then sprung into action and coordinated efforts with traffic control at port Tawfiq to get the tanker afloat again. Five tugboats were deployed for the rapid intervention, which saw the oil tanker afloat again five hours later.

With a length of 1,312 feet (400 m), Ever Given was a much larger ship than Affinity V, which likely contributed to the problems that were faced last year in keeping the ship afloat again.