GRIMSBY: Both vessels were still on fire on Tuesday over 24 hours after a cargo ship struck a jet fuel-laden tanker in the North Sea off northeast England, the UK Coastguard said. The fire on the Stena Immaculate tanker had "greatly diminished", the Coastguard said, adding the cargo ship Solong was "still alight" and being "monitored" after it "separated" from the tanker late on Monday night and began drifting southwards.
Fires were raging after a cargo ship laden with toxic materials slammed into a tanker carrying flammable jet fuel in the North Sea, as questions mounted about how the accident happened. There were also growing fears that any spill from the collision could harm the local environment and coastline, home to seals, porpoises and some protected waders and waterfowl.
The fires were "still going on" nearly 24 hours after the Portuguese-flagged Solong cargo ship ploughed into the Stena Immaculate tanker, anchored about 16 kilometres off the northeastern port of Hull, nearby Grimsby port chief executive Martyn Boyers said. One crew member was also still missing, he said.
The Stena Immaculate was on a short-term US military charter with Military Sealift Command, according to a spokesperson for the command that operates civilian-crewed ships for the US Defense Department. Crowley, the US-based operator of the tanker, said the crash had "ruptured" the ship's tank "containing A1-jet fuel" and triggered a fire, with fuel "reported released".
The UK government's Marine Accident Investigation Branch has launched a probe into Monday's accident to determine the next steps. The UK Coastguard halted search operations late on Monday after rescuing 36 crew members from both ships. It was not immediately clear if the search had resumed early on Tuesday. "One crew member of the Solong remains unaccounted for. After an extensive search for the missing crew member sadly they have not been found and the search has ended," said Matthew Atkinson, divisional commander for the Coastguard. The Stena Immaculate was carrying around 220,000 barrels of jet fuel, according to the maritime information service, Lloyd's List Intelligence.
The Solong was laden with 15 containers of sodium cyanide, it added, but authorities have not confirmed that and it is not known if any of the flammable compound had leaked. A spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was hosting his weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday, called the situation "extremely concerning". Quoting government sources, the Daily Telegraph said there was nothing so far to indicate that "foul play" had caused the crash, but it could not be ruled out. — AFP
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