Major disaster strikes France Telecom-Orange cable ship

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE

France Telecom-Orange, a leading telecommunications operator with sales of 45.3 billion euros for 2011 and 170,000 employees worldwide as at 30 June 2012,  has suffered a major mishap on its cable-ship, the Chamarel, a press release distributed by the African Press Organisation on its behalf has disclosed.

The release issued in Paris, France August 10, 2012, said  a fire broke out on the ship late afternoon on 8 August while returning from a repair operation on the Sat3-Safe cable off the coast of Namibia in the Atlantic Ocean, and that despite the crew's efforts to control the fire, the decision was made to abandon the ship at around 8pm local time.

All 56 crew members were safely recovered by a Namibian fishing vessel without injury or incident and is currently located at the Namibian port, Walvis Bay awaiting repatriation in the coming days, the release added. 

Although cause of the fire has not yet been established, France Telecom-Orange says a full investigation will be launched as soon as the vessel has been recovered.

The Group, which is present in 33 countries and had a total customer base of 224 million customers at 30 June 2012, including 166 million mobile customers and 15 million broadband internet (ADSL, fibre) customers worldwide, also pledges to work with the Namibian authorities to ensure minimum environmental impact during the recovery operation. 

Thierry Bonhomme, Senior Executive Vice President in charge of Networks and Carriers, and R&D, confirmed the gravity of the situation, saying; "This is a very serious incident, and I would like to express my sincere thanks to the crew members for their courage in managing the situation. The safety of our crew is our primary concern and we will look closely at the results of the investigation. I am also grateful for the support provided by the Namibian authorities."

The telecom company, which is one of the main European operators for mobile and broadband internet services and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies, however stresses that the incident has no immediate impact on submarine cables in the area, which will continue to function normally and says the Group will take all appropriate measures to manage maintenance operations that had been scheduled for the coming days.

Currently, France Telecom-Orange operates six cable ships and has four vessels dedicated to maintenance services in the Mediterranean basin, the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Two vessels are specialised in laying new telecommunications submarine systems worldwide, which are; the René Descartes, the flagship of the Group's subsidiary FT Marine, and the Teliri, which is operated by the subsidiary Elettra.