Stena Immaculate crash: Cargo vessel collides with oil tanker off UK coast, 37 people brought ashore

A cargo ship collided with an oil tanker off the UK coast on Monday morning, resulting in a massive fire, while the British coastguard swung into action as part of the emergency response.

At least 37 people were brought to shore, according to Martyn Boyers, chief executive of the Port of Grimsby East, while ambulances were called at the dock to take them to hospital, CNN reported.

What happened?

The incident involved Stena Immaculate, a US-flagged tanker, and Solong, a container ship that sails under the flag of Portugal's autonomous region Madeira, ship tracking tool VesselFinder said.


It noted that the Solong had on Sunday evening left the Scottish port of Grangemouth and was moving towards Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It hit the Stena Immaculate that was anchored near the city of Hull.

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Jet fuel fears

MV Stena Immaculate is operated by the US logistics firm Crowley. At the time of the incident, it was carrying jet fuel when it got hit by the Solong ship in the North Sea, BBC reported, adding that there were fears of jet fuel pouring into the sea.

“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," the news outlet quoted the Florida-based company as saying.

On social media, several viral videos and photographs showed a large fire spreading across the North Sea, while a rescue vessel appeared to spray water.

Operations underway

In response to the incident, the British coastguard sent a helicopter and lifeboats from the nearby towns. Also, several vessels with "fire-fighting capability” were put into action.

Four lifeboat crews have been sent by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to help in the operations.

At first, the alarm was raised at 9:48 AM (local time) on Wednesday morning and marine inspectors were gathering further evidence to determine the cause of the incident.

Marine Accident Investigation Branch spokesperson said a team has been deployed to the spot to undertake "preliminary assessment of the accident to determine our next steps".

Speaking about the collision, Martyn Boyers said it seems like a "mystery" so far as all the vessels nowadays are "very highly sophisticated technical equipment to plot courses and to look at any obstacles or anything they’ve got to avoid”.

At this point of time, Boyers said it was difficult to suggest what caused the collision.

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FAQs

1. What was MV Stena Immaculate used for?
According to CNN, Stena Immaculate was a part of 10 tankers fleet that are utilised in a US government program for supplying its military with fuel.

2. How did the collision happen?
Data by the ship tracking site MarineTraffic has indicated that one of the two ships was moving, while the other one was stationary at the time of the collision.