One crew member is missing and 30 have been rescued after a cargo ship crashed into an oil tanker carrying thousands of litres of jet fuel in the North Sea off the coast of England on Monday.
The BBC reported on Tuesday that the ships were still ablaze and that experts had warned of a potential environmental disaster at the scene of the collision.
The Portugese-flagged cargo ship, Solong, struck the larger US-flagged oil tanker, MV Stena Immaculate, in waters off Hull just before 10am on Monday, according to the public broadcaster.
MV Stena Immaculate was carrying around 220 000 barrels of jet fuel in 16 segregated cargo tanks for the US military and had been anchored there after travelling from a Greek port to Hull. Solong was heading south to the Netherlands from Scotland when it crashed into the tanker.
An American sailor from the Stena Immaculate described the collision to the BBC's US partner, CBS.
He said “a massive ship came from out of the blue” and crew only had seconds to react as flames immediately began erupting from the vessel after the collision.
According to the vessel tracking site, MarineTraffic, one of the ships appeared to be moving while the other was almost stationary when the crash occurred.
The BBC reported that it remained unclear what caused the collision although it had been “very foggy” on Monday morning, which could have affected visibility as thick fog had also hampered the initial rescue search.
According to the British Coastguard, one of the 14 Solong crew members was still missing when the search was called off on Monday night.
The UK's Maritime Accident Investigation Branch has started a preliminary assessment of the crash.
