Suspicion of involuntary manslaughter Captain arrested after ship collision in the North Sea
Smoke on the cargo ship "Solong".
Image: dpa
The "Solong" is adrift in the North Sea.
Image: dpa
The "Stena Immaculate" shows clear signs of damage.
Image: dpa
Smoke on the cargo ship "Solong".
Image: dpa
The "Solong" is adrift in the North Sea.
Image: dpa
The "Stena Immaculate" shows clear signs of damage.
Image: dpa
Suspicion of involuntary manslaughter: One person has been arrested following the shipwreck off the British North Sea coast. What is known about the collision so far.
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- A major operation is underway off the British North Sea coast due to a shipwreck.
- In the accident on Monday, the container ship "Solong", registered in Portugal, collided with the tanker "Stena Immaculate".
- One person was arrested on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter.
Following a ship collision in the North Sea, the British police have launched an investigation and arrested a suspect. The 59-year-old man is suspected of gross negligence manslaughter in connection with the collision, the authorities announced on Tuesday.
The German shipping company Ernst Russ confirmed to the BBC that it was the captain of the container ship "Solong". A police spokesman told the BBC that the man was being investigated for gross negligence in connection with the collision. Humberside Police did not initially provide any further details.
In the accident on Monday, the Portuguese-registered container ship "Solong" with toxic chemicals on board collided with the tanker "Stena Immaculate", which was carrying jet fuel for the US military. Both ships caught fire. Aircraft fuel from a damaged tank leaked into the North Sea.
The coastguard stated on Tuesday that the "Solong" was still on fire, but that the fire on board the "Stena Immaculate" had greatly diminished. A total of 36 crew members from both ships were brought safely ashore, and one person received medical treatment. One seaman was missing and the search was suspended on Monday evening. The British Undersecretary of State Mike Kane confirmed that the death of the crew member of the "Solong" was assumed.
It is still unclear why the freighter "Solong", owned by Hamburg-based shipping company Ernst Russ AG, collided with the anchored oil tanker "Stena Immaculate". What is known so far about the collision:
The course of the accident
The 183-metre-long "Stena Immaculate" was anchored around 15 kilometers off the northeastern English port city of Hull when it was rammed by the 140-metre-long cargo ship "Solong" on Monday, according to its Florida-based US operator Crowley Maritime. The alarm was triggered at 09:48 local time (10:48 CET).
As a result of the collision, a major fire broke out that engulfed both ships. According to Crowley Maritime, the "Stena Immaculate" was carrying around 220,000 barrels of aviation fuel; according to the Pentagon, the ship had been chartered by the US Army's Military Sealift Command. According to Crowley Maritime, the collision caused the kerosene tank to burst. There were also reports of leaking oil.
After "numerous explosions on board", the crew of the "Stena Immaculate" left the tanker, as Crowley Maritime further reported. A total of 36 crew members from both ships were brought ashore. According to the coast guard, an aircraft, lifeboats from several coastal stations and other ships were involved in the rescue operation.
Stena Bulk, the Swedish owner of the "Stena Immaculate", announced that the entire crew of the tanker had survived. From the Portuguese-flagged "Solong", 13 crew members were brought ashore. The search for a missing crew member was suspended on Tuesday night, according to the coastguard. According to the British government, it is assumed that the man is dead.
On Tuesday, the "Solong" shipowner Ernst Russ denied information from the website "Lloyd's List Intelligence", which specializes in maritime transport, that the freighter was carrying 15 containers of highly flammable sodium cyanide. There were only four empty containers on board, which had been used to transport the chemical in the past.
As a result of the accident, the port operator Associated British Ports (ABP), which is also responsible for the nearby ports of Hull and Immingham, suspended all shipping traffic in the Humber Estuary leading into the North Sea.
Fire on board
Images of the scene of the accident showed flames and thick black smoke. The emergency services continued to fight the fire on Tuesday. The fire on the "Stena Immaculate" had been "strongly contained", the coastguard explained. The "Solong", which had detached from the tanker and was drifting southwards, was still in flames.
The Dutch shipping service provider Boskalis, which said it had been commissioned to salvage the "Stena Immaculate", told the Dutch news agency ANP that four ships capable of extinguishing fires were on their way to the scene of the accident. The oil tanker must first be cooled down before the fire can be extinguished.
The multi-purpose vessel "Mellum" arrived at the scene of the accident from the German Central Command for Maritime Emergencies with equipment for fighting fires and collecting oil. In addition, a surveillance aircraft that can detect chemicals on the surface of the water took off from the Lower Saxony naval air base in Nordholz.
Consequences for the environment
Greenpeace scientist Paul Johnston explained before the sodium cyanide denial by Ernst Russ with regard to the ships' cargo that his organization was "extremely concerned about the multiple toxic hazards these chemicals could pose to marine life". Apparently, kerosene entered the water near an area where porpoises raise their calves.
Ivan Vince of ASK Consultants, a firm specializing in environmental risk consulting, said the "good news" is that the leaking kerosene does not permanently pollute the ocean like petroleum. "Most of it will evaporate fairly quickly, decomposed fairly quickly by microorganisms," said the expert. However, the kerosene will kill fish and other creatures.
Secretary of State for Transport Mike Kane told the British Parliament that there was currently "no evidence of pollution" of the North Sea by the two ships.
Possible causes
According to David McFarlane from the shipping consultancy Maritime Risk and Safety, there are around 200 to 300 ship collisions worldwide every year. Most of these are only minor collisions in port. Although there are busy shipping routes in the North Sea, accidents are relatively rare.
The shipping regulations state that all ships must keep a lookout for other ships and possible obstacles "at all times". "And clearly something went wrong here, because if there had been a proper lookout, this collision could have been avoided," MacFarlane told AFP.
Once the fires are extinguished, investigators will look for the recorders on both ships that record data of the ship's activity - similar to the black box on airplanes. This should contain data from the ship's radar as well as recordings of the crew's voices on the bridge. This would allow investigators to determine whether and how the two crews communicated with each other before the accident, explained McFarlane.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday that there was currently no evidence that the accident had been caused maliciously. The British Marine Accident Investigation Authority said it had sent a team to gather evidence and examine the "next steps". According to the British Secretary of State Matthew Pennycook, however, the authorities in the USA and Portugal are responsible for investigating the cause of the accident, as the ships were flying their flags.