On February 6, 2024, about 2135 local time, the US-flagged containership President Eisenhower was drifting about 94 miles south of Oakland, California, while awaiting a berthing assignment, when the crew discovered that 23 shipping containers had been lost overboard. None of the lost containers carried hazardous materials. There were no injuries, and no pollution was reported. Damage to the containership and the value of the lost cargo was estimated to exceed $735,000.
We determined that the probable cause of the container loss aboard the containership President Eisenhower was the input of incorrect cargo weight for 39 containers when the cargo loading plan was developed by shoreside planners, resulting in the containers being loaded in overweight and reverse-stratified stacks, causing cargo-securing equipment to fail while the vessel was drifting.
