[Trending News] One person in hospital but all crew accounted for after North Sea ships collide, says local MP – as it happened

One person hospitalised, local MP confirms

Graham Stuart, the MP for Beverley and Holderness, says the transport secretary has told him that only one person has been hospitalised following the incident.

“The other 36 mariners across both crews are safe and accounted for,” he said on X.

Key events

Closing summary

The crews of an oil tanker and a cargo ship are “safe and accounted for” with one person taken to hospital after the vessels collided in the North Sea, with jet fuel reported to have been released, a maritime company has said. Crowley, the shipping company that manages the MV Stena Immaculate, said there were “multiple explosions onboard” when the oil tanker suffered a ruptured cargo tank.
Graham Stuart, the MP for Beverley and Holderness, says the transport secretary has told him that only one person has been hospitalised following the incident. “The other 36 mariners across both crews are safe and accounted for,” he said on X.
An emergency operation was launched after the collision on Monday morning. A helicopter was scrambled and lifeboats launched from four different bases along the coast. The collision happened near the Humber estuary. According to the ship tracking tool Vesselfinder, the US-flagged tanker was at anchor at the time of the incident. It had departed from a Greek port in the Aegean Sea and was heading towards Hull, according to the Marine Traffic website. The Solong was destined for Rotterdam.
US logistics firm Crowley, the operator and joint owner of the MV Stena Immaculate, said the tanker was carrying jet fuel. The vessel was hit by the Solong in the North Sea at approximately 10am today. In a statement, the Florida-based company said: “A fire occurred as a result of the allision, and fuel was reported released.
The Stena Immaculate tanker was on a short-term charter to the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command when it was struck on Monday while anchored off north-east England, a US military spokesperson told Reuters. The tanker was operated by US logistics group Crowley. Crowley wrote on X that the tanker, carrying a cargo of Jet-A1 fuel, was anchored near Hull off the North Sea coast when it was struck by the Portuguese-flagged 9,322 dwt container ship Solong.
The Solong vessel, which was involved in a collision off the coast of Britain on Monday, is carrying 15 containers of sodium cyanide among other cargo, according to a report from maritime data provider Lloyd’s List Intelligence. The container vessel was also transporting an unknown quantity of alcohol, the casualty report – an assessment of incidents at sea – said, citing a message from the local coastguard.
A spokesperson for Greenpeace UK said it was monitoring the situation “very closely” but that it was too early to assess the extent of any environmental damage.
Two maritime security sources said there was no indication of any malicious activity or other actors involved in a crash on Monday between a tanker carrying jet fuel and a cargo vessel off the coast of England.
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch sent investigators to Grimsby following the crash between two vessels in the North Sea. A spokesperson said: “The Marine Accident Investigation Branch has deployed a team to Grimsby following the collision of the Portuguese-registered container ship Solong and the US-registered oil tanker Stena Immaculate which collided in the North Sea this morning.”

Thanks for following this live blog throughout the afternoon.

You can continue to keep updated on any developments with our full report here:

The Solong vessel, which was involved in a collision off the coast of Britain on Monday, is carrying 15 containers of sodium cyanide among other cargo, according to a report from maritime data provider Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

The container vessel was also transporting an unknown quantity of alcohol, the casualty report – an assessment of incidents at sea – said, citing a message from the local coastguard.

The UK coastguard authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported.

Tanker struck off UK coast was on US military charter, US says

The Stena Immaculate tanker was on a short-term charter to the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command when it was struck on Monday while anchored off north-east England, a US military spokesperson told Reuters.

The tanker was operated by US logistics group Crowley. Crowley wrote on X that the tanker, carrying a cargo of Jet-A1 fuel, was anchored near Hull off the North Sea coast when it was struck by the Portuguese-flagged 9,322 dwt container ship Solong.

No indication of any malicious activity in the UK tanker crash, Reuters sources say

Two maritime security sources said there was no indication of any malicious activity or other actors involved in a crash on Monday between a tanker carrying jet fuel and a cargo vessel off the coast of England.

A jet fuel spillage into the sea is “less of an environmental problem” than black crude oil, experts have said this afternoon.

Prof David Slater, honorary professor in the school of engineering at Cardiff University, said:

It is being reported that jet fuel has been spilt into the sea. If so, that means it was more likely to ignite, as appears to have happened. The upside is it’s less of an environmental problem than black crude oil.

In some cases like this it’s better to leave it to burn, but that depends on how much fuel is leaking.

Mark Hartl, a marine ecotoxicologist from the Centre for Marine Biodiversity and Biotechnology at Heriot-Watt University, said:

Whilst the images look worrying, from the perspective of the impact to the aquatic environment it’s less of a concern than if this had been crude oil because most of the jet fuel will evaporate very quickly.

Also, the fact that it happened out at sea and not closer to land or within an estuary setting is fortuitous and will minimise the environmental impact.

However, it will have an acute effect on organisms in the immediate aftermath of the spill and lead to various degrees of stress in exposed animals.

There must also be a concern that heavier ship fuel was spilled as a consequence of the collision which could have a more lasting effect on the coastline.

The head of the maritime centre at Liverpool John Moores University has been using simulators to reconstruct the incident and said watchkeepers on the Solong could be to blame for the collision.

Dr Abdul Khalique Said:

It can be assumed that the watchkeepers on MV Solong were not performing their duty to ‘maintain a proper lookout by all available means’ as required by International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea.

Although lookout by sight may have been hampered by the poor prevailing visibility at the time of accident, had the watchkeepers been maintaining a proper lookout by Radar, they would have spotted this imminent collision threat and taken an action to avoid collision. Preliminary reports suggesting that poor visibility may have played a role in the collision too.

The incident will be fully investigated by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) and other stakeholders to fully understand the reasons for such a mishap.

According to our reconstruction, MV Stena Immaculate’s heading was approximately about 065⁰ when she was hit on her port side by MV Solong at 9:48:07 between the rear half of MV Stena Immaculate’s length.

After collision, MV Stena Immaculate’s heading turned to heading 131⁰ (T) and took all of MV Solong’s speed away. Both ships appear to have remained in contact for around four minutes dragged southeast until 9:52:42.

Black smoke billowing into the air after a crash between an oil tanker and a cargo ship off the coast of East Yorkshire. Photograph: Bartek Smialek/PA

One person hospitalised, local MP confirms

Graham Stuart, the MP for Beverley and Holderness, says the transport secretary has told him that only one person has been hospitalised following the incident.

“The other 36 mariners across both crews are safe and accounted for,” he said on X.

Here is a graphic which shows where the collision in the North Sea occurred this morning.

Ship collision

Karen McVeigh

David McFarlane, director of Marine Risk and Safety Consultants Ltd, said both ships would have been obliged to do what they can to avoid collisions, under international collision regulations.

Several warning systems, including radar and a ship’s horn, are on board aimed at preventing such incidents. Around 200-300 collisions happen at sea each year, he said.

“They would have sighted each other over radar, called Automatic Identification System (AIS), onboard. The ships would be able to see and identify another vessel via AIS, and can call them up via very high frequency radio, and ask them what they are doing.”

A ship is visible on another ship’s radar from as far as 24 miles away, McFarlane said. All vessels should have someone on lookout at all times.

“But you wouldn’t get anxious about another ship until it was about 4 miles away, depending on speed.”

If the other ship doesn’t respond on the radio, vessels have a last-minute warning system, the ship’s horn, he said.

“The next thing to do would be to blast the horn of a ship, which can be heard from miles away”.

However, if a ship is at anchor, and initial reports of the Stena Immaculate suggest that it was nearly stationary, it can take a ship up to an hour to pick up the anchor.

“I’ve heard that one of the ships was an anchor. If so, there’s a possibility it would have picked up its anchor, or was in the process of doing so, we don’t know. But it can take up to an hour to pick up anchor.”

McFarlane said that it is too early to speculate what happened between the two vessels.

However, in the 200-300 collisions around the world every year, human error is often to blame.

He said that while there have been reports of pockets of fog in the North Sea at the time of the collision, it would not impact the ability of any approaching vessel to warn of an approach, given the AIS.

Stena Immaculate was carrying jet fuel – US logistics firm

US logistics firm Crowley, the operator and joint owner of the MV Stena Immaculate, said the tanker was carrying jet fuel.

The vessel was hit by the Solong in the North Sea at approximately 10am today.

In a statement, the Florida-based company said: “A fire occurred as a result of the allision, and fuel was reported released.

“The Stena Immaculate crew abandoned the vessel following multiple explosions onboard.

“All Crowley mariners are safe and fully accounted for.”

There are fears the jet fuel is now spilling into the sea, BBC News reports, and that the fuel was owned by the US military.