Excavator operator helping free ship blocking Suez Canal
Business Insider India reported on how excavator operator Abdullah Abdul-Gawad risked his life and worked 21-hour days to free the Ever Given, the skyscraper-sized container ship stuck in the Suez Canal.
Then Abdul-Gawad was not only virtually ignored, but at the time of writing had not received his overtime pay..
Describing the scene that faced him at work [on March 23], Abdul-Gawad told Insider it was “really quite something.” “It was awe-inspiring,” he said.
The 28-year-old, who has been operating excavators since university, said he and his colleagues worked 21-hour days, barely sleeping – and still had not received their overtime pay.
Freeing the Ever Given was an international effort, with winches, dredgers, tugboats, and excavators all brought in.
But Abdul-Gawad was the man who was literally at the rock face of the problem. Once he got to the base of the ship, there was no choice but to start digging.
In his estimation, the Ever Given’s bow was lodged about six meters, or 20 feet, higher than where the ship ought to have been floating. Its stern was also sitting on the opposite bank, and the sideways ship was blocking all traffic.
To approach the base of the vessel, he built a makeshift “bridge” from rubble he dug up, allowing him to get closer.
The image of the little excavator gave the world unparalleled meme fodder, but for Abdul-Gawad the situation was far less funny – it was dangerous. Under the looming sides of the ship, he feared destabilizing the ship and having it topple onto him.
“The thing is, I was terrified that the ship might list too far to one side or the other,” he said. “Because if it fell onto its side on me, then it’s goodbye me, and goodbye excavator.
“If you see the size of the ship and you see the size of the excavator, it is absolutely terrifying.”
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