The collision of an oil tanker and a cargo ship off the British coast of Yorkshire is turning into a tragedy, with reports indicating there are 32 casualties and a massive fire has broken out.
A representative of the shipping company Stena stated that a chemical tanker owned by them, managed by the American company Crowley, is one of the vessels involved in the collision. Sources from the shipping industry told Reuters that the two ships involved are the chemical tanker Stena Immaculate and the container ship Solong.
Television footage broadcast by the BBC shows at least one ship burning with plumes of black smoke rising into the sky. However, according to American officials, the tanker involved in the crash was part of a program to transport oil for the U.S. military in “times of need.” Specifically, the Stena Immaculate was renamed in August 2023 as part of a program by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Maritime Administration. In practice, they could continue commercial activities but could also be chartered by the U.S. government on a short-term basis. It is not known whether the Stena Immaculate was chartered under the program at the time of the collision.
There are reports on social media that the oil tanker may have been carrying aviation fuel.
“A rescue helicopter from the coastguard took off from Humberside to reach the site, along with lifeboats from Skegness, Bridlington, Mablethorpe, and Cleethorpes. A fixed-wing aircraft from the Royal Air Force has also been deployed, along with nearby vessels capable of firefighting. The incident is ongoing,” the Maritime and Coastguard Agency stated in a release.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), a lifeboat service for emergency response, emphasized: “There are reports that many people abandoned the ships after the collision and fires broke out on both vessels.”
The maritime area where the collision occurred is a busy waterway with traffic from ports along the northeastern coasts of Britain to the Netherlands and Germany, sources from the shipping industry reported.
