Two boats are still burning, a crew member is missing, and the search has ended after a collision caused an explosion off the Yorkshire coast this morning. The environmental damage remains uncertain.
MC Stella Immaculate, an oil tanker carrying jet fuel for the US Navy, was anchored in the Humber Estuary, near the town of Withernsea, east of Hull,when cargo ship MV Solong crashed into it shortly before 10am.
Both vessels burst in the flames in a fireball. Black smoke billowed into the air. Thousands of tons of fuel spilled into the sea. The crews abandoned ship.
All but one on board the Solong – which was carrying 15 containers of toxic sodium cyanide – escaped. The search for the missing person was called off before 10pm.
‘Sadly they have not been found and the search has ended’, HM Coastguard divisional commander Matthew Atkinson said.
‘The two vessels remain on fire and coastguard aircraft are monitoring the situation.
‘An assessment of any required counter pollution response is being carried out by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.’
Crowley, the company managing the Stena, which carried 220,000 barrels of jet fuel when it was hit, said: ‘At this stage it is unclear what volume of fuel may have been released.’
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