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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 …
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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
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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
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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”
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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”
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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
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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
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.
