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.”
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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.
Updated
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.
Updated
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.
Updated
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.
Updated
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch has 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.
“Our team of inspectors and support staff are gathering evidence and undertaking a preliminary assessment of the accident to determine our next steps.”
All crew confirmed alive on burning North Sea tanker, says shipowner
All of the crew on board a burning oil tanker in the North Sea are confirmed alive, the Swedish shipowner said after a collision with a cargo ship on Monday.
“Yes we can confirm that,” Lena Alvling, a spokesperson for the Swedish shipowner Stena Bulk, told AFP when asked whether the crew were all alive, as TV images showed a huge plume of thick, black smoke and flames rising from the scene about 10 miles (16 km) off the coast of northern England.
The US-flagged Stena Immaculate chemical tanker which was involved in a collision with a container ship off the British coast is partially loaded with cargo, shipping data showed on Monday.
It was not clear if there was any fuel leak from the collision, Reuters reported.
The impact of any environmental damage caused by the oil tanker collision off the coast of Yorkshire will depend on “the amount and type of oil carried by the tanker, the fuel carried by both ships, and how much of that, if any, has entered the water”, a spokesperson for Greenpeace UK said.
They said:
We are monitoring reports of a cargo vessel crashing into an oil tanker off the coast of Yorkshire very closely.
Both the high speed of the collision and the footage of the aftermath are cause for great concern.
Right now, our thoughts are with all those affected by the incident and the emergency services responding to the situation.
The spokesperson said that “at this stage, it’s too early to assess the extent of any environmental damage” and added:
But the magnitude of any impact will depend on a number of factors, including the amount and type of oil carried by the tanker, the fuel carried by both ships, and how much of that, if any, has entered the water.
Sea and weather conditions will also be important in determining how any spill behaves.
In the case of an oil spill or any loss of hazardous cargo from the container ship involved, the speed of the response will also be crucial in limiting any impact.
Ship insurer Skuld of Norway would only confirm that the Stena Immaculate was covered with it for protection & indemnity, a segment of insurance that covers environmental damage and crew injuries or fatalities.
Solong’s manager, Hamburg-based Ernst Russ, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The United Nations shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization, said it was aware of the situation.
Martyn Boyers, chief executive of the Port of Grimsby East, has spoken to Sky News in the UK. He told viewers that the 32 casualties brought ashore were all alive, but he did not know whether that was the full complement of the two crews. He said that it had been a foggy morning in the region, and it was a “very unusual and tragic accident.”
He said:
We were put on standby earlier on this morning, around about 11 o’clock, to receive casualties, not knowing in what format, how they were going to arrive.
And the first bunch of casualties were 13 on board one of the offshore windfarm vessels – they have these crew transfer vessels that take people out, technicians, out to the windfarms. And one of those was in the vicinity, and that one picked up 13 casualties and brought them into the port of Grimsby here, followed by a pilot vessel that brought in another ten people, another ten casualties, and then shortly after that, there was another nine casualties brought to you by another pilot boat.
So altogether, 32 casualties were brought through the port, and there was a line of ambulances waiting to take them to Princess Diana hospital, which is what they’re still doing now.
He said he could not confirm the condition of the people, as “the area was sectioned off by the police.”
On conditions, he said:
The sea conditions were actually reasonable. The wave heights were only sort of like 2 metres. Nothing untoward.
But the only thing there has been all day has been a haze and a smog. So this morning, it’s been very foggy, and the fog has never lifted. So I would imagine that at that time, when the accident took place, that there would have been fog.
Having said that all these vessels now … they’ve got every, every bit of kit that’s known to man about how to navigate and radars and everything. So it’s a very, very unusual and tragic accident.
Updated
The BBC has reported that all crew on the Stena Immaculate are accounted for and safe.
Business reporter Jonathan Josephs says he has spoken to the chief executive of Stena Bulk, Erik Hanell, who said all of the oil tanker crew were safe, but would not be drawn to comment further about the cause of the collision.
The two vessels involved in the collision are both large vessels. The Stena Immaculate is a 183 metre-long (600 feet) oil tanker, and the cargo vessel Solong is 140 metres long (460 feet).
North sea collision – what we know so far …
32 casualties have been brought ashore in Grimsby after an oil tanker and a cargo vessel collided about 10 miles off the coast of East Yorkshire
Lifeboats and a coastguard helicopter were called to the collision in the Humber estuary on Monday morning, believed to involve a US-flagged tanker called the MV Stena Immaculate, and a Rotterdam-bound cargo vessel the Solong
A HM Coastguard spokesperson said “The alarm was raised at 9.48am”. They said “A coastguard rescue helicopter from Humberside was called, alongside lifeboats from Skegness, Bridlington, Maplethorpe and Cleethorpes, an HM Coastguard fixed wing aircraft, and nearby vessels with fire-fighting capability. The incident remains ongoing”
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said: “I’m concerned to hear of the collision between two vessels in the North Sea this morning and am liaising with officials and HM Coastguard as the situation develops”
Not all of the crew of the two ships is believed to be accounted for yet. Tracking data appears to show the Solong hit the Stena Immaculate when it was anchored
Chief executive of the Port of Grimsby East, Martyn Boyers says that he was told a “massive fireball” was seen after the collision. Video footage appears to show the aftermath with the vessels on fire
Updated
32 casualties now reported to have been brought ashore at Grimsby
PA Media has just issued a snap saying a further nine people have been brought ashore to Grimsby, taking the total number of casualties rescued from the collision to 32. Their condition remains unclear.
Transport secretary 'concerned' to hear about vessel collision and fire off coast
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander has expressed concern about the collision and thanked emergency workers who are dealing with the situation.
The Labour MP for Swindon South said “I’m concerned to hear of the collision between two vessels in the North Sea this morning and am liaising with officials and HM Coastguard as the situation develops. I want to thank all emergency service workers involved for their continued efforts in responding to the incident.”
The collision is about ten miles off the East Yorkshire coast, near Grimsby, between an oil tanker and a container ship. 23 casualties are reported to have been brought ashore at Grimsby so far, but not all the crews are accounted for.
23 casualties have been brought ashore at Grimsby after collision at sea – reports
More than 20 casualties have been brought ashore at Grimsby after a collision between a tanker and a cargo ship in the North Sea, but some crew members are yet to be accounted for, a port boss has said.
PA Media reports Martyn Boyers, chief executive of the Port of Grimsby East, said 13 casualties were initially brought in on a Windcat 33 vessel, followed by another 10 on a harbour pilot boat.
The casualties’ conditions remain unclear. Boyers said he had been told there was “a massive fireball”, adding: “It’s too far out for us to see – about 10 miles – but we have seen the vessels bringing them in.
It is highly unusual for large vessels to apparently collide in daylight, but visibility may have been an issue, according to an earlier report from the Met Office. It had earlier reported “areas of fog and low cloud lifting as winds increase through the morning” in the region, predicting “warm, if rather hazy sunny spells.”
Video appears to show ships ablaze after collision
Here is a video clip which appears to show the aftermath of the collision between the Stena Immaculate and the Solong off the coast of East Yorkshire. Marine tracking appears to show that the Solong, en route to Rotterdam, struck the Stena Immaculate, which was at anchor. It is likely that between them the two vessels had about 40 members of crew.
Updated
Television images from the BBC have shown at least one vessel ablaze with clouds of black smoke billowing into the air.
The coastguard agency said a helicopter, fixed-wing aircraft, lifeboats and nearby vessels with fire-fighting capability were called to the incident, Reuters reported.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), a lifeboat service working on the emergency response, said: “There were reports that a number of people had abandoned the vessels following a collision and there were fires on both ships.”
The area where the collision took place is a busy stretch of waterway with traffic running from the ports along Britain’s northeast coast to the Netherlands and Germany, shipping industry sources said.
The ships involved in the collision are understood to be Stena Immaculate and Solong, a Portuguese-flagged container, according to BBC News.
It reports:
On the tracking site, we can see the Immaculate at anchor and at 9:48 we can see the Solong – a Portuguese-flagged container – appear to be colliding with the tanker.
The Stena Immaculate had travelled from the Greek port of Agioi Theodoroi, and was anchored outside Hull.
The Solong, meanwhile, had been sailing from the Scottish port of Grangemouth to Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.
The United Nations shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization, is aware of the situation, and is checking further, it said.
Maritime analytics website Marine Traffic showed a number of vessels including container ships and oil tankers in the area of the North Sea where the collision occurred.
Lifeboats and a coastguard helicopter have been called to the collision in the Humber estuary, believed to involve a US-flagged tanker called the MV Stena Immaculate.
The American tanker was at anchor, according to ship tracking tool Vesselfinder, Reuters reported.
Britain’s coastguard is responding to reports of a collision between a tanker and cargo vessel off England’s northeastern coast, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said.
“A Coastguard Rescue Helicopter from Humberside was called, alongside lifeboats from Skegness, Bridlington, Maplethorpe and Cleethorpes, an HM Coastguard fixed wing aircraft, and nearby vessels with fire-fighting capability. The incident remains ongoing,” the agency said in a statement.
The alarm for the incident was raised at 9.48am. The BBC reported that the oil tanker involved in the collision was on fire. Reuters could not immediately verify that report.
Updated
UK coastguard responds to ship collision off northeast coast
An oil tanker and a cargo vessel have collided in the North Sea, with the UK coastguard providing an emergency response.
An HM Coastguard spokesperson said: “HM Coastguard is currently co-ordinating the emergency response to reports of a collision between a tanker and cargo vessel off the coast of East Yorkshire.
“The alarm was raised at 9.48am.
“A Coastguard rescue helicopter from Humberside was called, alongside lifeboats from Skegness, Bridlington, Maplethorpe and Cleethorpes, an HM Coastguard fixed wing aircraft, and nearby vessels with fire-fighting capability.
“The incident remains ongoing.”
