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    Oil tanker and cargo vessel collide in North Sea
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    Oil tanker and cargo vessel collide in North Sea

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    25 Comments

    1. TurnItOffAndOnAgain- on

      ‘oil tanker involved in the collision is on fire’ this is going to be bad

    2. ConsciousStop on

      > a large rescue operation has been launched off the coast of East Yorkshire. We’ve just heard that the alarm was first raised 9:48 GMT.

      Statement from the Coastguard

      > “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 [sic] and Cleethorpes, an HM Coastguard fixed-wing aircraft, and nearby vessels with firefighting capability.
      >
      > “The incident remains ongoing.”

    4. Glanza on

      Will make for a interesting episode of **Saving lives at Sea** when / if the footage airs.

    5. NunWithABun on

      Hopefully everybody is able to be evacuated safely. An oil tanker on fire doesn’t sound like a fun place to be.

    6. mh1191 on

      You’d think things like oil tankers and cargo ships were big enough to see before you hit them.

    8. RC19842014 on

      Looking at the map on [marinetraffic.com](http://marinetraffic.com) after searching for Stena Immaculate, the name of the tanker, the cargo ship is called Solong. There are several offshore supply ships nearby, probably part of the rescue effort.

    11. PreSuccessful on

      I can’t wait to see how this is going to crew all of us over while the companies guilty of this will face no consequences.

    12. I_love_running_89 on

      Really worrying for the marine environment, and for our East Coast coastline. Especially when we are coming into Spring and breeding season for many species is starting.

      Hopefully they can locally contain most of whatever spill there might be.

      Very sad news.

    13. Zaphod_79 on

      That’s terrifying. Both crews could have seen that collision would be unavoidable. Would rhe crew of the ship at anchor have abandoned ship?

    14. mikewozere on

      It’s of paramount importance in tragedies like this to remember to quote from vaguely relevant sketches by comedians who are funnier than you. Good job everyone.

    15. elohir on

      >The oil tanker involved in the collision, MV Stena Immaculate, was en route from Agio Theodoroi in Greece to Killingholme in the UK.

      >However, unusually, this is one of just ten oil tankers enlisted in a US government programme which is designed to supply the armed forces with fuel during times of armed conflict or national emergency.

      >It means they can be called upon by the US military at short notice but there’s no indication that it was being used for these purposes when this accident happened.

    16. Lynch8933 on

      The oil tanker was chartered by the US military and carrying jet fuel. Trump is going to go crazy over this! The vessel that collided into it was a German vessel

    18. faceinacrowd on

      Can people stop speculating Russia is involved somehow?

      I’m against Russia in all its forms but speculating that they’re involved in a ship collision at this stage while Search & Rescue is still ongoing is majorly premature. Ship collisions and near misses happen frequently enough in the North Sea (one of the busiest areas for shipping in the world) that accident is more likely.

      If one of the vessels was at anchor, avoiding hitting it is easier but collisions are still possible. Any investigation will be replaying AIS feed data from the inbound ship as well as looking at both ships equivalent of the “black box”, interviewing surviving crew and doing full scale inspections of both vessels to determine what went wrong. This will take at least half a year for an incident of this stage, but MAIB may feel confident enough to release preliminary results before then.

      Until then – speculators can go do something useful like apologising to trees for all the oxygen they’re wasting.

      Source: Ex-HMCG.

      My thoughts are with the casualties and the staff on duty at MRCC Humber, as well as UK Counter Pollution. They will not be having a good day.

    19. Salty-Space- on

      I’m on scene. Have been for a few hours. No oil spill due to the nature of the cargo (apart from the initial collision. The oil on fire in the water you see in one of the photos would be from the initial collision) . Mainly toxic fumes from the fire is the immediate concern. Everyone rescued now landed ashore.

    20. Rat-king27 on

      I live not far from there. It happened in Spurn Point, and I’m in Grimsby. This is going to do a lot of harm to the seal population round here.

    21. MeetMeAtIkea on

      Russia, No!

      >The US-flagged Stena Immaculate appears to have been hit while at anchor by the Portuguese-flagged container Solong, according to tracking data analysed by BBC Verify

      Sorry, force of habit.

    22. Lovecraftian666 on

      Mate in the Merchant Marine here. I can understand how to a layperson this seems deliberate, but it likely isn’t. 

      This Solong changed course at flamborough head and remained on it till it hit the Stena hours later. What likely happened here is inattention exacerbated by poor visibility.

      There’s an endemic problem in the maritime sector of watchkeepers staring at their phones or doing paperwork while they should be navigating. Meant to be a second watchman in poor visibility or darkness but many ships flout it. I’d say this is what happened here but it is early days. 

    23. Ambitious_Coconut_65 on

      Did anyone see the clip that showed the path of the Portuguese ship? Looked like it sailed right at the tanker. Tin has firmly on.