Three Containers Go Overboard at Port of Los Angeles Berth 302

Three 40-foot containers fell from a CMA CGM boxship during cargo operations at Berth 302 in Los Angeles at about 11:20 on Monday morning. Two sank on entering the water and one stayed afloat. All three held non-hazardous cargo.

The floating container was recovered straight away. Divers located the first of the two sunken boxes, fitted it with flotation bags and brought it to the surface by around 22:00 the same evening. The second was retrieved on Tuesday morning. A 400-yard safety zone was put in place around the berth while the work went on and lifted once the last container was out of the water.

"The safe recovery of these containers and reopening of the waterway was a direct result of the coordination and professionalism of everyone involved," said Capt. Jarrod DeWitz, deputy commander of Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach. The US Coast Guard worked the response alongside Los Angeles City Fire and the Los Angeles Port Police.

The root cause has not been disclosed. What matters commercially is that the drop happened alongside, during a lift, and not at sea in weather — which puts the question on the gear, the lashing or the handling rather than on the passage.

That question is the one the inspection statistics keep returning to. Inadequate cargo securing sits in the same group of faults as wrong documentation and improper packing in the deficiency data filed by port states, a group that turned up in more than one inspection in ten in 2025. A box that is not packed or secured to its declared weight and centre of gravity behaves differently on a crane wire than the paperwork says it will.

Two sunken containers raised inside a day is a good outcome for a busy berth: the waterway reopened, nothing leaked, and nobody was hurt. The cost sits with the cargo owners and with whoever ends up carrying the investigation.

This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 17 September 2026.