Software Failure Congests Maritime Traffic in the Kiel Canal

Last Sunday, a group of large vessels were prevented from entering the Kiel Canal in Germany, which connects the North Sea to the Baltic, due to a problem of software - the signal was given by a spokesman for the maritime authority.

"We had to stop traffic for safety reasons. Our colleagues have been trying everything they can to solve the problem as quickly as possible," said Detlef Wittmüss, head of the Kiel Canal Waterways and Shipping Authorityto the newspaper Kieler Nachrichten. 

According to the spokesman, in the early afternoon, smaller ships were able to re-enter the canal at Brunsbüttel, on the North Sea side, and by the end of the day, small vessels were also able to resume their journeys. Normally, Sundays are days when more than 80 ships use the Kiel Canal.

In recent days, a new software was installed to control navigation on the artificial waterway, the spokesman added. So far, it has worked flawlessly.