A 59-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the collision yesterday (10 March) between an oil tanker and container vessel in the UK’s North Sea, with one member of the box ship’s crew still unaccounted for.
The fire that broke out aboard the US-flagged MV Steena Immaculate was reported as having been extinguished earlier today, but the blaze aboard the Portuguese-flagged, 800-teu box ship, the Solong was still raging as this story went to press, with suggestions that the expectation was that the vessel would soon sink.
Of the 14 sailors aboard the Portuguese vessel, 13 have been accounted for, with the UK’s minister for aviation, maritime and security, Mike Kane, having told Parliament that the assumption now was that the missing seaman had died.
Shortly thereafter, Humberside Police, noting that they were working in collaboration with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, confirmed that they had opened a criminal investigation into the incident, with sailors aboard the tanker having described a vessel coming out of nowhere shortly before their ship was struck.
A statement from the police said the 59-year-old had been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, with detective chief superintendent Craig Nicholson confirming this followed “enquiries undertaken by my team”.
Mr Nicholson added: “Extensive work has already been carried out, and we’re working closely with our partners to understand what happened, and to provide support to all of those affected. The man arrested remains in custody at this time whilst enquiries are under way, and we continue speaking with all those involved to establish the full circumstances of the incident.”
The tanker, managed by Crowley in the US, arrived from the Greek port of Agioi Theodoroi with jet fuel onboard, owned by the US government which had chartered the ship.
Crowley said in a statement on X the vessel sustained a ruptured cargo tank. The fuel is now in the North Sea.
The cargo ship was operating a service between Grangemouth, Scotland and Rotterdam, Netherlands. Solong was carrying sodium cyanide.
Xeneta’s chief analyst, Peter Sand, said: “It is vitally important that the industry works together to learn lessons from this incident once the cause is fully investigated and understood,” he urged.
