Hope For Blocked Suez Canal Hinges On Rising Tide That Can Free Ship

By Saturday, the potential for a full-blown economic calamity was palpable - the canal is a vital global portal, carrying 13 percent of all global trade via ships ferrying $9.5 billion in goods each day.

The global economic troubles triggered by a giant container ship stuck in the Suez Canal worsened Saturday with the blockage of more ships carrying billions of dollars of goods. But hopes also grew that favorable tidal conditions could help free the Ever Given as a U.S. Navy team was expected to arrive this weekend to assist in the operation. Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities publicly acknowledged for the first time that an initial investigation that found that the ship beached because of strong winds in a dust storm might not have been entirely accurate. At a news conference Saturday, Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, head of Egypt's Suez Canal Authority, said that such "a significant incident" typically has many causes. "The weather was one reason, but maybe there was a technical error, or a human error," he said, adding that the probe into the grounding was continuing.