Video: dozens of containers fall onto barge in US Port of Long Beach

Containers have fallen from the deck of a post-Panamax container vessel in the Californian Port of Long Beach in Los Angeles.

Videos of the incident have been posted across online platforms and show the collapse of multiple stacks of containers on board 5,500-TEU box ship Mississippi.

More than a dozen shipping containers tumbled off a ship and into the water at the Port of Long Beach in California on Tuesday morning when a cargo vessel listed to one side, according to the US Coast Guard. t.co/Y1izyAwhpI pic.twitter.com/qbRXK3SnIV

— ABC News (@ABC)

More than a dozen shipping containers tumbled off a ship and into the water at the Port of Long Beach in California on Tuesday morning when a cargo vessel listed to one side, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. https://t.co/Y1izyAwhpI pic.twitter.com/qbRXK3SnIV

— ABC News (@ABC) September 9, 2025

The vessel is on charter to Israel-based operator ZIM, according to shipping databases, and was built for Norwegian firm MPC in 2024, backed by leasing from Norway-based Ocean Yield.

The box ship was located at Pier G at the Port of Long Beach when the incident happened just after 09:00 am local time on 9 September. The Port of Long Beach put out a statement from a ’unified command’ composed of representatives from the port authority, the US Coast Guard, the Long Beach Fire Department, Police Department and the US Army Corps of Engineers noting the command was established in response to the incident.

The port said no other terminals or operations have been impacted, and no injuries were reported in the incident, despite several of the containers that fell from Mississippi falling onto an emissions-cleaning barge that was alongside the larger container vessel. 

A representative for the owner of emissions-cleaning barges operating in the port, STAX, confirmed to Riviera by email that the company’s STAX 2 was alongside the vessel during yesterday’s incident at the Port of Long Beach but referred to the port for further comment on the status of the vessel. A follow-up email to a Port of Long Beach representative has, thus far, gone unanswered. Riviera has also contacted the charterer, ZIM, and will update this story with any responses.

The USCG established a safety zone around the vessel and the pier, and said it is undertaking an investigation into the cause of the incident. 

Well-known US-based professor and shipping historian Sal Mercogliano said in social media posts on the incident on X (formerly Twitter), that Mississippi had a "distinct starboard list", and the collapse of the box stacks on board represents a potential spill of hazardous materials.

"This was not just a collapse of the outside boxes, but of the ones amidships pushing against the outboard boxes," he said. "Boxes not overboard are crushed and the issue is now a potential hazmat spill and other collapses."

"It appears that the aft stack collapsed first, followed by the stack one bay forward of the house. It appears the lashings had been removed from the containers for offloading, as the ship arrived that morning at Pier G, ITS. No reports of injuries, but cleanup will take time and part of the forward stack has collapsed against one of the ship-to-shore cranes."