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The crews of an oil tanker and a cargo ship are “safe and accounted for” with one person taken to hospital after the vessels collided in the North Sea, with jet fuel reported to have been released, a maritime company has said.
Crowley, the shipping company that manages the MV Stena Immaculate, said there were “multiple explosions onboard” when the oil tanker suffered a ruptured cargo tank.
More than 30 casualties have been brought ashore so far after the collision off the coast of East Yorkshire on Monday morning. The other vessel involved was a Portuguese-flagged container ship called the Solong.
Graham Stuart, the MP for Beverley and Holderness, said the transport secretary told him that only one person had been hospitalised. “The other 36 mariners across both crews are safe and accounted for,” he said on X.
Footage from the scene showed clouds of black smoke billowing into the air.
A spokesperson for Greenpeace UK said it was monitoring the situation “very closely” but that it was too early to assess the extent of any environmental damage.
Crowley said in a statement: “At approximately 10am on 10 March 2025, while anchored off the North Sea coast near Hull, United Kingdom, the Crowley-managed tanker Stena Immaculate was struck by the container ship Solong.
“The Stena Immaculate sustained a ruptured cargo tank containing Jet-A1 fuel due to the allision. 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.
“Crowley immediately initiated its emergency vessel response plan and is actively working with public agencies to contain the fire and secure the vessel. Our first priority is the safety of the people and environment. We will provide more updates as information becomes available.”
An emergency operation was launched after the collision on Monday morning. A helicopter was scrambled and lifeboats launched from four different bases along the coast.
The collision happened near the Humber estuary. According to the ship tracking tool Vesselfinder, the US-flagged tanker was at anchor at the time of the incident. It had departed from a Greek port in the Aegean Sea and was heading towards Hull, according to the Marine Traffic website. The Solong was destined for Rotterdam.
Footage of the incident showed both ships on fire, with flames spreading across the water and clouds of black smoke coming from the oil tanker, which is believed to have been carrying jet fuel.
A spokesperson for HM Coastguard said: “HM Coastguard is currently coordinating the emergency response to reports of a collision between a tanker and cargo vessel off the coast of East Yorkshire.
“The alarm was raised at 9.48am. A coastguard rescue helicopter from Humberside was called, alongside lifeboats from Skegness, Bridlington, Mablethorpe and Cleethorpes, an HM Coastguard fixed-wing aircraft, and nearby vessels with firefighting capability.
“The incident remains ongoing and an assessment of the likely counter-pollution response required is being enacted.”
The UK transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said: “I’m concerned to hear of the collision between two vessels in the North Sea this morning and am liaising with officials and HM Coastguard as the situation develops. I want to thank all emergency service workers involved for their continued efforts in responding to the incident.”
The leader of Hull council, Mike Ross, said: “The scenes across the East Yorkshire coast are deeply shocking. My thoughts are with all those affected. There will now be massive emergency response efforts from people right across the area and beyond.
“As Hull’s council leader, I will work with the team here urgently to do everything we can to support the response needed now.”
A spokesperson for Greenpeace UK said: “Both the high speed of the collision and the footage of the aftermath are cause for great concern.” They added: “Right now, our thoughts are with all those affected by the incident and the emergency services responding to the situation.”
David McFarlane, the director of Marine Risk and Safety Consultants, said several warning systems, including radar and a ship’s horn, were onboard aimed at preventing such collisions. About 200 to 300 collisions happened at sea each year, he said.
“They would have sighted each other over radar, called automatic identification system, onboard. The ships would be able to see and identify another vessel via AIS, and can call them up via very high frequency radio, and ask them what they are doing.”
A ship was visible on another ship’s radar from as far as 24 miles away, McFarlane said. All vessels should have someone on lookout at all times.
“But you wouldn’t get anxious about another ship until it was about four miles away, depending on speed.”
If the other ship did not respond on the radio, vessels have a last-minute warning system, the ship’s horn, he said.
“The next thing to do would be to blast the horn of a ship, which can be heard from miles away.”
If a ship is at anchor, however, and initial reports of the Stena Immaculate suggest it was nearly stationary, it could take a ship up to an hour to pick up the anchor.
“I’ve heard that one of the ships was at anchor. If so, there’s a possibility it would have picked up its anchor, or was in the process of doing so, we don’t know. But it can take up to an hour to pick up anchor.”
McFarlane said it was too early to speculate about what happened but human error was often to blame for collisions worldwide.
He said that while there had been reports of pockets of fog in the North Sea at the time of the collision, that would not have affected the ability of any approaching vessel to warn of an approach, given the AIS.
