Several shipping containers tumbled off a cargo ship and plunged into the water near Berth 302 at the Port of Los Angeles Monday morning, with at least one container seen bobbing near the vessel's hull afterward. The incident occurred shortly before 11:30 a.m., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department, and no injuries were reported.
Aerial footage captured by Air7 showed at least one container floating near the cargo ship, though as ABC7 Los Angeles reported, it remains unclear how many of the fallen containers sank below the surface. The cause of the incident has not been determined. Berth 302 sits within the 291-acre Pier 300 container complex operated by Fenix Marine Services, the second-largest terminal at the Port of Los Angeles, featuring four berths, roughly 4,000 feet of wharf, and 16 ship-to-shore cranes, according to a state environmental filing published by CA.gov.
A Pattern of Container Trouble in San Pedro Bay
Monday's incident follows a string of container-securing problems across the neighboring ports over the past year. In February, the U.S. Coast Guard issued a Marine Safety Alert, warning terminal operators after multiple container stack collapses in San Pedro Bay in late 2025 — incidents that damaged an emissions control barge and injured a crew member, according to gCaptain. The alert pointed to inadequate communication and a lack of formal procedures for managing vessels positioned alongside cargo ships as primary risk factors.
The same gCaptain report noted a separate October 2025 near-miss at the Port of Los Angeles, in which four containers nearly landed on an emissions control barge due to ineffective container-securing methods during cargo handling — a pattern federal safety advisories have since highlighted. And in September 2025, roughly 75 containers fell overboard from the cargo ship Mississippi at Pier G in the Port of Long Beach, requiring sonar surveys to locate submerged boxes and triggering a multi-agency Unified Command response, along with an investigation by the Coast Guard and NTSB, the outlet's reporting notes.
New Reporting Rules and a Busy Port
Since January 1, International Maritime Organization regulations have required vessel masters to immediately report any containers lost overboard or spotted drifting in navigable waters, a rule adopted to improve ocean navigation safety and transparency, according to Kuehne+Nagel. Globally, an estimated 1,478 containers were lost overboard in 2025 out of roughly 280 million shipped worldwide — about 0.00053% of total volume — per the World Shipping Council's 2026 update.
Monday's fall also lands during one of the port's busiest stretches on record. The Port of Los Angeles processed 955,907 TEUs in August and topped 1 million TEUs in June, marking the busiest three-month stretch in the port's history amid seasonal peak import demand, according to Supply Chain Dive. The combined San Pedro Bay complex, spanning the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, handles between 30% and 40% of all containerized import freight entering the United States, making it a major ocean freight hub.
Quick Response, Lingering Questions
The Los Angeles Fire Department's harbor infrastructure includes Fire Station 112 in San Pedro, which is home to Fireboat 2. The depth of navigation channels around Berth 302 and the role of the Marine Exchange of Southern California in monitoring them remain unclear.
It remains unclear whether the containers that fell Monday involved improper lashing, crane handling errors, or vessel movement, and whether sonar mapping will be needed to locate any submerged boxes in the deep channel. The cause of the incident has not been determined, and officials have not said how many containers ultimately sank.
