Officials from HM Coastguard and the shipping companies involved in Monday’s incident in the North Sea are reporting that the situation has stabilized aboard both ships as attention turns to planning the salvage operation. UK investigators are continuing to gather information while they wait for access to the data recorders aboard the two ships.
“The MCA is working with the salvage companies who are responding on behalf of the vessels’ owners and are working in full cooperation with all commercial and government partners. The overarching objective is to protect the public and the environment to the best of our ability, during this ongoing incident response,” HM Coastguard said in its update midday on Wednesday. “There have been no further reports of pollution to the sea from either vessel beyond what was observed during the initial incident.”
"This video footage clearly shows the context of the accident, that is the fog conditions at the time, while the moment of impact is also shown clearly," commented Yarden Gross, CEO and Co-founder of Orca AI, a maritime operations platform utilizing artificial intelligence and computer vision to aid mariners. The company describes the video saying the footage comprises two videos, one captured by the SeaPod's day cameras showing the dense fog that would likely have prevented the crew of the feeder containership Solong from seeing the Stena Immaculate with the human eye. The second video captured by the SeaPod's thermal cameras shows the approach of the Solong and the explosion as it hit the tanker.
The fires aboard the containership Solong are being described as “greatly reduced in their extent and intensity” while the vessel’s owner Ernst Russ said in a statement that the operational response to fully extinguish the fire and stabilize its containership continues. It said that fire activity onboard had diminished since yesterday, but that the vessel continues to emit smoke with occasional reports of flames. Pictures show the vessel charred end to end. The containership continues to be held in a safe position offshore by a tug with additional support vessels remaining in the area.
There are no visible flames on the Stena Immaculate, which remains at anchor with safety tugs in position nearby. The salvage team from Boskalis was hoping to carry out an onboard assessment on Wednesday afternoon.
Stena Immaculate on March 11 (Photo: Maritime and Coastguard Agency)
Erik Hanel, chief executive of Stena Bulk which owns the tanker said the company was working closely with Crowley which operated the tanker under charter for the U.S. government, and that once the fire has been fully extinguished, salvagers would conduct a comprehensive assessment of the damage.
Speaking with the BBC, Hanel said that they would not know the full extent of the structural damage until the teams got aboard. He said they “hoped a decision on what to do with it could be made over the next 24-48 hours.” Hanell said that they now believe only two of the vessel's 18 fuel tanks had leaked, with an estimated 10 percent of the cargo.
The investigators have not made any public comments although the Internet remains ripe with speculation. A spokesperson for Ernst Russ commented that the master of the vessel who was detained by the police and its entire team are “actively assisting with the investigations.” They confirmed that the master is a Russian national and the rest of the crew are a mix of Russian and Filipino nationals.
Media in the UK is also highlighting that the Solong was cited for a range of issues during Port State inspections in 2024. The vessel’s owners responded that the issues had been resolved at the time of the inspections. While deficiencies were identified during inspections in both the UK and Ireland last year, the vessel was not detained.
HM Coastguard said the operations would only proceed to the next phase when it was safe to do so. They have continued to monitor the temperatures aboard both vessels while also looking for any indications that the fires were flaring up or further pollution.
Source: The Maritime Executive
