Champion Trader 
- Name
- Champion Trader
- Accident date
- 29/10/1998
- Location
- USA
- Accident area
- Mississippi River, Louisiana
- Spill area
- Inshore
- Cause of spill
- Explosion
- Quantity transported
- 800 m3 of heavy fuel oil
- Nature of pollutant
- Heavy fuel oil, palm oil
- Quantity spilled
- 14 m3 of heavy fuel oil and 460 tonnes of palm oil
- Ship / structure type
- Tanker
On 29th October 1998, an explosion occurred onboard the Champion Trader, killing one person and injuring five others.
The explosion resulted in the release of 14 m3 of heavy fuel oil and 460 tonnes of palm oil into Southwest Pass, in the Mississippi Delta (Louisiana).
An oil slick formed, spreading over a 3 km stretch of the Mississippi River. Only 20 tonnes of palm oil were recovered.
The US Coast Guard did not observe any damage to the flora and fauna.
The cost of clean-up operations was estimated at around US $600,000.
Sources:
- MAMACA Emina, GIRIN Michel, LE FLOCH Stéphane and EL ZIR Rawad, 2009, Review of chemical spills at sea and lessons learnt, Interspill 2009 conference
- Incident news
See also
Vegetable oil spills at sea, Cedre operational guide
External links
NOAA database (IncidentNews)