[3][1] On 6 March 2018 at about 14:45 GMT, a major fire broke out in the No.3 forward cargo hold of Maersk Honam while the vessel was in the Arabian Sea about 900 nautical miles (1,700 km; 1,000 mi) southeast of Salalah, Oman, en route from Singapore to Suez.

At the time, she was carrying a cargo of 7,860 containers and a crew of 27: thirteen Indian, nine Filipino, two Thai, one Romanian, one South African, and one British nationals.

[6] 23 crew members were evacuated to a nearby merchant vessel, ALS Ceres, while the remaining four (two Filipino, one Indian and the South African) were declared missing.

[8] Three injured crew members were later moved to the Indian Coast Guard vessel ICGS Shoor after their condition worsened.

[6][9] Maersk Line announced on 12 March that remains of three as-yet-unidentified crewmembers had been found on board, leaving one still officially missing[10] who was later declared dead.

[12] The fire continued to burn, albeit controlled, into April, by which time the ship had been taken under tow to the Port of Jebel Ali for the unloading of intact cargo.

The TSIB report concluded that the 1,000 tonnes of sodium dichloroisocyanurate dihydrate (SDID), a powerful oxidiser, stored in 54 containers in the No.3 cargo hold, could be one potential cause of the fire.

Electrical faults, fuel tank heating, misdeclaration of goods, and another cargo ignition source were ruled out as potential causes.

The stern section was taken from Jebel Ali to Geoje aboard the semi-submersible ship MV Xin Guang Hua, which sailed from Dubai in February 2019.