C/V Humacao; Avon, North Carolina

Avon, North Carolina | 1999-Oct-14

Initial Notification: On the nights of October 12 and 13, 1999, several hundred medication bottles came ashore along the north side of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The bottles were reported between the towns of Salvo and Avon, North Carolina, a 10 to 15 mile stretch of open ocean beach on the Atlantic coast. The bottles were still closed with safety seals and with partially readable labels. On October 25, 1999, representatives of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) identified several medications such as anti-depressant and anti-anxiety drugs as manufactured by BMS and shipped on the United States flagged container ship Humacao. The C/V Humacao lost 78 containers over the side or were damaged during a transit from Jacksonville, Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Marine Accident Injury or Death report provided to MSO San Juan noted that 51 containers went overboard between September 14 and 16 as the vessel traveled off the coast of Jacksonville in hurricane force winds from hurricane Floyd. Three containers shipped by BMS aboard the M/V Humacao went overboard and medications from two of the containers were believed to have been washed ashore in North Carolina. USCG district 5. Keyword: none.