Microsoft Flight Simulator Mod Has Fun With Cargo Ship Stuck In Suez Canal
You have to feel for the crew of the Ever Given, a massive container ship that somehow became stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking billions of dollars in goods that would otherwise traverse the artificial waterway each day. While bright minds try to figure out the quickest way to dislodge the ship, the internet is having a laugh at the situation through memes, and a humorous Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) mod.
Released last August, the latest version of MSFS is leaps and bounds prettier and more advanced than the original version that came out nearly four decades ago. It features gorgeous graphics, ultra-realistic flight mechanics, and accurate mapping powered by Bing Maps and Microsoft's Azure cloud platform. Be that as it may, what you will not find when flying over the Suez Canal currently is the Ever Given. Not unless it has been modded in.
That is exactly what TikTok user @donut_enforcement did. The viral video depicts the scene from within the cockpit as it flies next to the Suez Canal, with narration provided by the pilot.
"Uhhh, this is your captain speaking. If you look on your left wing, you will see the Suez Canal. This is where most of our world trade and cargo ships go through," the narration begins, just before the Ever Given comes into view. "And up here we have a stuck cargo ship. Ladies and gentlemen, go ahead and put your seatbelts on, we are gonna do a fly around where that cargo ship is at. Oh jeez, it appears they have a big problem."
Cargo ship stuck in Microsoft Flight Simulator pic.twitter.com/SczumWI5mD
— Mat Velloso (@matvelloso) March 28, 2021
The video caught the attention of Mat Velloso, technical advisor to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who re-posted the 52-second clip on Twitter.
"Good thing [this] is Flight Sim and not Ship Sim, otherwise [a] bunch of players would be annoyed as hell," Velloso commented in a follow-up tweet.
He also linked to a mod that will add the Ever Given to the Suez Canal, to recreate the blockage that is disrupting global trade on an enormous scale at the moment. You can download the Suez Traffic Jam mod if you wish, which also shows several tugboats trying to free the ship, and a pair of excavators attempting to dig out the ship's bow.
