The unanswered questions after oil tanker and cargo ship collide in North Sea
Source: The i Paper
Jet fuel has spilled into the North Sea after an oil tanker collided with a cargo ship off the coast of East Yorkshire.
US tanker Stena Immaculate was hit while anchored by Portuguese-flagged container vessel Solong, with the impact causing multiple explosions.
More than 30 crew members were brought ashore, after lifeboats and a Coastguard helicopter were sent to the scene near Hull.
There are concerns that the pollution could impact wildlife, threatening several protected bird species and a rare seal colony.
Immaculate was transporting jet fuel for US military, US officials have confirmed.
Solong was also carrying containers of highly toxic sodium cyanide, though it is not clear whether this has entered the water. The compound generates a poisonous gas if heated and poses a lethal threat to animals if ingested.
Marine accident investigators have been deployed to gather evidence and conduct a preliminary assessment, building a picture of what happened.
Are the crew members safe?
Shipping company Ernst Russ confirmed that one of the 14 crew members aboard the Solong was missing.
The search for them was called off late on Monday, the coastguard said.
The ship’s other 13 crew members were safe and accounted for, along with all 20 of the Immaculate’s crew.
Matthew Atkinson, divisional commander for HM Coastguard, said: “36 crew members were taken safely to shore, one person was taken to hospital.
“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.
“The two vessels remain on fire and coastguard aircraft are monitoring the situation.”
A spokesperson for East Midlands Ambulance Service said paramedics assessed 36 people at Grimsby’s North Quay.
After the collision, footage showed black smoke billowing into the air from the vessels, with fire visible on at least one ship.
Lifeboats and a Coastguard helicopter were dispatched to the nearby Humber estuary just before 10am.
Martyn Boyers, chief executive of the Port of Grimsby East, said that 13 casualties were initially brought in on a Windcat 33 – a high-speed catamaran typically used to transfer crew.
Ten more casualties followed on a harbour pilot boat and another nine on a separate vessel.
What caused the collision?
Ship-tracking data indicates that the 183-metre Immaculate was practically stationary at the time of the crash, while the 140-metre Solong was on the move at average speed.
According to Marine Traffic, the oil tanker, which had previously travelled from the Greek port of Agioi Theodori, was drifting at 0.1 knots at 9.48am.
Solong, en route from the Scottish port of Grangemouth to Rotterdam, was moving at 16 knots At 9.45am, when it was just 800 metres away from the tanker.
Minutes later, its speed dropped to 3 knots, in what appears to be the moment of impact. At the same time, Immaculate moved at 2.5 knots, possibly due to the force of the impact, before coming to a stop once again.
The cause of the collision is unclear at this stage, but it has been suggested that autopilot could have played a part.
Mr Boyers told Sky News: “One of them was at anchor and the other would have set a course.
“They have a thing called autopilot, and that’s what I would suspect has been the issue. If it’s been put on autopilot and there’s no one on the bridge, which would happen, then it’d just go straight on.
“Autopilot just steers a course, they don’t deviate, there’s no bend in the sea.”
Dr Abdul Khalique, head of the Maritime Centre at Liverpool John Moores University, suggested that watchkeepers on the Solong would have spotted the imminent collision if they had been “maintaining a proper lookout by radar”.
Dr Khalique, who has been using simulators to reconstruct the incident, added: “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.”
Preliminary reports suggest poor visibility may also have played a role in the collision, the expert said.
“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.”
Both ships appear to have remained in contact for around four minutes, Dr Khalique added.
Professor David Slater, honorary professor in the school of engineering at Cardiff University, said ships are supposed to stick to lanes to avoid collisions.
“One thing that needs to be established is, where was the tanker moored in relation to the appropriate shipping lane?” he said. “It will be important to know whether the cargo ship was on the right course or whether the US tanker was incorrectly moored.”
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch has deployed investigators to the scene to conduct a preliminary assessment.
Independent maritime safety consultant David McFarlane told BBC News that more will become clear once investigators recover data recorders from the vessels. However, it will take “weeks if not months to come to any proper conclusion”, he added.
The Immaculate is one of 10 vessels enrolled in a US Government programme to supply the Armed Forces with fuel during an armed conflict or emergency.
Two maritime security sources told Reuters there was no indication of any malicious activity or other actors involved in the incident.
What is the environmental risk?
Crowley confirmed that a cargo tank on board the Immaculate ruptured during the collision, leaking A-1 jet fuel into the sea.
It is currently unclear how much has been released, but oil spills can harm or kill marine wildlife and affect fishing and communities if they reach the coast. Experts say jet fuels are generally less toxic than crude oil spills.
The Solong was carrying 15 containers of sodium cyanide, which is highly toxic. It has a variety of commercial uses, such as in printing, dyeing, and metal-cleaning.
It can be lethal to animals if ingested and creates poisonous gas if heated. However it is not clear whether any has entered the water.
Martin Slater, director of operations at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said the pollution could be “devastating” to the Humber estuary, putting birds and seals at risk.
East Yorkshire’s coast is home to “protected and significant colonies” of seabirds including puffins, razorbills, gannets and kittiwakes, with many birds gathering offshore ahead of the nesting season, he said.
“There are significant numbers of Atlantic grey seals in the area, many rearing this year’s young, as well as porpoises and other cetaceans [whales or dolphins] around Spurn,” Mr Slater added.
Spurn is a narrow tidal island off the tip of East Yorkshire and is designated as a national nature reserve.
“If pollution spillage enters the Humber, this could potentially be devastating for the wildlife of the estuary, including important fish stocks and tens of thousands of overwintering and migrating birds who use the mud flats,” he added.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said the site of the collision was close to the biggest gannet colony in England, and warned a leak could be “lethal” to seabirds.
Greenpeace UK said it was “too early” to know the extent of any environmental damage, with the magnitude of any impact dependent on several factors, including how much of any pollutants had entered the water as well as sea and weather conditions.
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