North Sea crash latest: Sailor describes moment 'massive ship' came from 'out of the blue'

Sky News

11-03-2025

'A massive ship came out of the blue': Sailor describes escape from tanker
A sailor has described how he escaped from a stricken tanker shortly after the collision yesterday.
The anonymous crew member of the Stena Immaculate said he was near the impact site when the collision happened.
Out of nowhere, "a massive ship came from out of the blue", he told CBS News.
He said he only had seconds to react after hearing a shout from another crew member to brace.
He added that the Solong, the other vessel involved, didn't immediately stop and that it crashed into the Stena Immaculate for what seemed like 10 minutes.
Jet fuel and sodium cyanide: How crash could have lethal consequences for wildlife
By Victoria Seabrook, climate reporter
The crash involving a cargo ship and oil tanker off the East Yorkshire coast is bad news for the sea, fish and air in the area. What we don't know yet is quite how bad it will be.
That depends on a few things - but the speed of the collision, clouds of filthy black smoke from the fires and the leaked fuel are certainly worrying.
Firstly, it matters what was on board those two massive vessels.
Read Victoria's full piece here.
Collision a 'shocking reminder' of environmental dangers of oil
Yesterday's collision in the North Sea is a "a shocking reminder of the ferocious polluting power of oil," an ocean advocacy group has said.
Hugo Tagholm, executive director of Oceana UK, said: "We are seeing burning slicks, the threat of heavy fuel oil, and toxic chemicals leaking in or near not one but two marine protected areas (MPAs) - places that should be safe havens for wildlife.'
Tagholm said the Southern North Sea and Holderness MPAs protect declining harbour porpoises and rich seafloor habitats, which are both highly sensitive to toxic spills.
"Oil is always an accident waiting to happen in our ocean and we are all familiar with its devastating impacts – seabirds slick with oil, marine life struggling in tarry tidelines, and a toxic legacy that can impact wildlife and coastal communities for years. More oil will always result in more spills," he added.
"It is also deeply concerning that the cargo vessel is reportedly carrying sodium cyanide, a severely toxic chemical that can devastate marine wildlife if in high enough concentrations. For now, we don't know how much, if any, reached the water but we have sent an Oceana team to the North East to monitor developments."
What we know so far
An oil tanker and cargo ship collided in the North Sea off the coast of East Yorkshire yesterday morning, forcing crew members to abandon ship.
Both vessels burst into flames after the crash about 13 miles from the coast.
The fire on the tanker continued to burn overnight into today.
Here is everything we know.
Watch: Latest images from the scene
You can watch live aerial shots from the scene in the North Sea off the coast of East Yorkshire.
You can watch on YouTube below or stay on our site by clicking the stream at the top of this page.
New images emerge from scene
We're now getting some live aerial images from the scene of the tanker collision.
It appears that the Stena Immaculate is still stranded, as water pours out of its sides.
Fire is not clearly visible, but we were told early this morning that the blaze was still raging.
UK authorities response 'amazing'
The response from the UK authorities in the wake of the collision has been "amazing", a maritime expert has said.
Dr Stavros Karamperidis, head of maritime Transport Research Group, commended the firefighting and rescue efforts, saying British authorities reacted swiftly despite the scale of the disaster.
He speculated human error could be one of the reasons behind the crash, but suggested a mechanical failure could be more likely given the age of the ships.
"What we can definitely say for sure is that we have seen an amazing response from the UK authorities... the damage was so big but still they managed with the firefighting to go there and rescue most of the people."
Watch the rest of his interview here.
Shipping heatmap shows most frequent routes in area
By Adam Parker, OSINT editor
A density map from MarineTraffic shows the most frequent routes boats take in the area.
The map shows that in 2023, there were fewer ships following the route taken by the cargo ship Solong. It also highlights a decrease in the variety of routes used compared to 2022.
The colours range from dark red (most used) to dark blue (least used).
The thick red line on the map below shows the path Solong took yesterday and includes all the other ships in the area at the time.
What happens now?
Our north of England correspondent Katie Barnfield is in Grimsby for us this morning, just miles from the incident in the North Sea.
She gives us the latest...
"Now the search and rescue operation is over, attention moves to two things," she says.
"Number one - trying to contain the environmental impact of this collision and the resulting oil spill - we know that the Solong was carrying sodium cyanide, which is of course a toxic chemical.
"And number two, trying to find out exactly how this was able to happen."
She notes that an investigative team is on the ground (see 7.40 post), and will likely offer up some more detail soon.
Any indication of foul play?
We're still no closer to understanding why these two vessels collided yesterday.
Speculation is swirling that there may have been foul play involved.
While that hasn't been definitively ruled out by authorities, two maritime security sources told the Reuters news agency there was no indication of any malicious activity or other actors involved in the incident.
We'll likely get more detail once investigators have carried out their initial assessments (see 7.40 post).