North Sea crash vessel expected to sink as manslaughter arrest made in UK
11 Mar 2025 21:01
London (PA Media/dpa)A burning cargo ship which crashed in the North Sea is expected to sink, and a missing sailor is presumed dead, a UK government minister said on Tuesday. A 59-year-old man has also been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter after the collision between the cargo vessel and a tanker, Humberside Police said.Portuguese vessel Solong is drifting after the crash with US tanker Stena Immaculate off the east coast of the English county of Yorkshire on Monday.Transport minister Mike Kane told the UK parliament that Solong "continues to burn" and the coastguard has said "it is unlikely the vessel will remain afloat."He added that the Maritime and Coastguard Agency is "working at pace to determine exactly what cargo the Solong is carrying."Kane said the "working assumption" is one crew member from the container ship has died, after a search and rescue operation was ended on Monday when "the chances of their survival had unfortunately significantly diminished."The Government "will do everything to recover the body of the mariner," he added.Kane said something went "terribly wrong" for the crash to happen, and there is "no evidence" of foul play. There were fears Solong was carrying sodium cyanide, but shipping company Ernst Russ, which manages the vessel, said that was not the case.Four empty containers on board that "previously contained the hazardous chemical" will "continue to be monitored," it added. Aerial images from the scene show three tugboats are alongside Solong, and at least one attached to it. Smoke is continuing to billow from the ship. The Solong was clearly visible from the coast on Tuesday. A small group of people gathered in the Lincolnshire village of Saltfleet to see the stricken vessel drifting near the horizon.The area is famous for its seal colonies and people living along the coastline said they were getting increasingly concerned about the consequences of the fuel leak into the sea. Crowley, the maritime company managing Stena Immaculate, said the vessel was struck by Solong while anchored off the coast of Hull, causing "multiple explosions" on board and an unknown quantity of Jet A-1 fuel to be released.The firm said Stena Immaculate was carrying 220,000 barrels of jet fuel in 16 segregated cargo tanks, at least one of which "was ruptured" when it was struck.The tanker was operating as part of the US government's tanker security programme, a group of commercial vessels that can be contracted to carry fuel for the military when needed. It had been anchored while waiting for a berth to become available at the Port of Killingholme, on the River Humber, Crowley said. CBS News in the US reported that an American man who said he was among the crew on Stena Immaculate described how Solong "came from out of the blue" and it appeared no-one was on its bridge when the crash happened.
Ship tracking website VesselFinder shows the tanker had departed from a port in the Peloponnese region of Greece and was heading towards Hull, while Solong was sailing to Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
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