US jet fuel tanker, cargo ship collide off UK coast

What happened

A container ship hauling toxic chemicals collided with a tanker carrying jet fuel for the U.S. military off the northeast coast of England Monday, causing multiple explosions. The crews of both vessels abandoned ship, and Britain's coast guard said 36 sailors were safely taken ashore. The owner of the cargo ship, the Solong, said one crew member was missing.

Who said what

The U.S.-flagged tanker Stena Immaculate was carrying Jet-A1 fuel for the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command, a military spokesperson and the ship's U.S. operator, Crowley Logistics, told Reuters. One crew member told the BBC that the Solong, registered in Portugal and owned by German firm Ernst Russ, came out of nowhere and collided with the 600-foot Stena Immaculate at 16 knots.

"Both vessels have sustained significant damage in the impact of the collision and the subsequent fire," Ernst Russ said in a statement. Some residents reported seeing a "massive fireball" after the crash, said Martyn Boyers, CEO of the Port of Grimsby East. The Solong was carrying 15 containers of sodium cyanide, a toxic chemical used in gold mining and other commercial applications, and alcohol.

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What next?

The collision released jet fuel into the Humber Estuary, and "efforts to assess any environmental damage are still ongoing," the BBC said. The impact on seabirds, gray seals and fish from the jet fuel was likelier to be more immediate and of shorter duration than with a crude oil spill, Mark Hartl, a scientist at Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University, said to The Washington Post. But the fuel can still be hazardous for wildlife, and the fact that it's burning "changes the complexity and chemistry," so "it's a bit early to speculate" on the final damage.