2025 North Sea ship collision
On 10 March 2025, the container ship MV Solong collided with the oil tanker MV Stena Immaculate, which was at anchor in the North Sea off the coast of East Yorkshire.
Solong, a Portuguese ship flagged out of Madeira, was carrying alcohol, but was also initially thought to have been carrying sodium cyanide. The US-registered Stena Immaculate was carrying aviation fuel on a charter for the United States Air Force ; both ships also had a supply of heavy fuel for their own use. Following several explosions, both vessels caught fire and were abandoned. They remained entangled for the rest of the day, then later they separated. Solong began to drift. Thirty-six people were rescued, with one hospitalised, and one missing, presumed dead.
There was no indication of any third-party or malicious involvement in the crash, and primary concerns were to limit potential environmental damage from leaking aviation and ship fuel. A rescue operation involving several European countries was delayed due to fog.
An investigation involving the two flagged countries and the UK was announced on 11 March. The same day, Humberside Police opened a criminal investigation and arrested the 59-year-old Russian captain of Solong. On 14 March he was charged with gross negligence manslaughter of the missing crewmember and remanded in custody. On 30 May he pleaded not guilty to the charge at the Old Bailey. On 2 February 2026, following a trial at the Old Bailey, he was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter.
Involved ships
The vessels involved were the Portuguese-registered container ship MV Solong, flagged out of Madeira, and the US-registered oil tanker MV Stena Immaculate.MV ''Solong''
Solong is a feeder vessel long, with a capacity of 804 twenty-foot equivalent units. She was built in 2005 and owned by, a publicly-traded Hamburg-based shipping firm. Her cargo included alcohol, and early reports also indicated that she was also transporting 15 containers of sodium cyanide, a toxic chemical. However, Ernst Russ subsequently described this as "misrepresentation", saying that although she had previously carried the chemical, there were only four empty tanks that had contained it on board. The captain was a Russian national, and the remaining 13 crew were Filipino or Russian.In July 2024 Solong was reported in Irish safety checks to have ten outstanding issues including emergency steering compass not readable, inadequate alarms, poorly maintained survival craft and fire door deficiencies. In October 2024 a Scottish inspection noted lifebuoys were inadequately marked. Ernst Russ reported that all identified safety issues had been rectified. Similar issues had been reported in previous inspections, but this is not considered unusual in ships of this age and faults were not sufficient to prevent the ship sailing, rather being advisory to carry out repairs. The ship had taken an almost identical route through the anchorage where the collision occurred several times in the last few months. Solong was towed in to Aberdeen in late March.
MV ''Stena Immaculate''
Stena Immaculate is an chemical products carrier and is long with a beam of, a deadweight tonnage of 49,729 and a gross tonnage of 29,666. She was built in 2017 at the Guangzhou Shipyard International with the yard number 12130009, and is owned by Stena AB and operated by Crowley Maritime of Florida. She was on a short-term charter to the US government as part of the US Government Tanker Security Program and was transporting of Jet A-1 aviation fuel in 16 secure tanks to the Port of Killingholme, Lincolnshire, for the use of the United States Air Force. All 23 crew were USA nationals. Stena Immaculate was towed in to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk on 11 April.Incident
Solong had departed from Grangemouth and was en route to Rotterdam, due to arrive on the evening of 10 March. Stena Immaculate had travelled from Agioi Theodoroi in Greece, and was at anchor north-east of Spurn Head, waiting to arrive at Killingholme. This location was a common but uncharted anchorage for vessels off the Humber; five other tankers and three bulk carriers were also anchored at this location at the time of the collision.At 01:30 GMT on 10 March, Solong passed Longstone Lighthouse off the Northumberland coast, before taking a 150° heading. At 09:47, it struck Stena Immaculate at a cruising speed of around. Crews reported multiple explosions. Abdul Khalique, head of Liverpool John Moores University's Maritime Centre, said that "MV Stena Immaculates heading was approx around 065° when she was hit on her port side by MV Solong at 9:48:07 between the rear half of MV Stena Immaculates length". The ships may have remained connected for up to four minutes until disengaging. Only one of the tanker's cargo tank compartments was ruptured.
Early reports suggested that a "massive fireball" had engulfed the tanker after the collision, which remained on fire with her cargo leaking into the sea. Her on-board fire suppression system appears to have functioned as required. Solong was also reported to be on fire. HM Coastguard was alerted to the incident at 09:48. RNLI crews from Bridlington, Mablethorpe, Skegness, and Cleethorpes were deployed. A crew transfer vessel was in the area already, and rescue helicopter, boats and a fire-fighting aircraft were also deployed. Occupants of both vessels abandoned ship. The Port of Grimsby East stated that 32 people had been brought ashore, but others were unaccounted for. One person was hospitalised. Stena Bulk confirmed that all 20 onboard Stena Immaculate had been accounted for and were safe, but by nightfall one member from Solong, a Filipino national, was missing after having entered the water and not been among those rescued. The search was called off later that night, the crewmember presumed dead.
The Met Office had issued a warning of fog for the Humber area which was valid at the time of the incident, although this would not affect the ships' automatic identification systems and they would still be able to warn other vessels of their approach.
Aftermath
A, no-fly zone was imposed around the affected area, with a exclusion zone around each vessel. All maritime traffic was confined to port along the east coast. Thick black smoke and fires still burned on 11 March, hampering early investigation, and further fires were suspected below decks.The two ships initially remained entangled, but separated overnight of their own accord, and although the fire on board Stena Immaculate was still burning the next day, it had greatly reduced in intensity. The ship had sustained a large hole in its side and was seen to be taking on water, although on-board generators were still operating. Solong drifted into the Humber, shadowed by several tugboats. Badly damaged and still alight after the fire on Stena Immaculate had burnt out, Solong was initially considered likely to sink, whilst Stena Immaculate was built with a double hull and watertight compartments designed to mitigate the possibility. By the afternoon of 11 March, both ships were considered likely to remain afloat. By 15 March, Solong had drifted several miles to the south and could be seen off the Lincolnshire coast. Stena Immaculate remained at anchor where she had been struck. Firefighting tugs were in the vicinity of both vessels, although by this point only isolated pockets of fire were present on Solong. Salvors had boarded both vessels to assess damage, and aerial surveillance indicated risks of further environmental damage were minimal.
Investigation
The Telegraph subsequently reported that UK government sources had not ruled out the possibility of "foul play", although early reports did not indicate third-party involvement or other malicious activity. The US government also refused to rule out criminal activity, "amid questions about why the cargo ship appeared not to slow down or change course before striking the Stena Immaculate. The governments of the United States and Portugal announced their own investigations into the crash on 11 March, which would work alongside that of the UK.Analysis
, a retired rear admiral with the Royal Navy, believed that the crash was caused by negligence, based on the likelihood of anchored ships being present in the area and the danger of travelling through at speed. It was a particularly busy area for shipping as it was a direct route to the Netherlands and Germany, as well as Scandinavia. Maritime analyst David McFarlane stated the AIS can provide warning of other vessels within, and that both ships should have had lookouts. He also noted that a ship at anchor could take up to an hour to raise it, which would impede its ability to avoid a collision. A computer reconstruction by Khalique suggested that the lookouts may not have been performing their duties optimally; while fog would have hampered visibility for them, they may not have been checking their radar.The Marine Accident Investigation Branch is leading an investigation with assistance from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Portuguese Marine Safety Investigation Authority, part of which will involve recovery of the vessels' voyage data recorders. The investigation's early findings reported that Solong was travelling a route it regularly took.
On 3 April 2025 the MAIB released an interim report, with new images of the incident. The report said "Neither Solong nor Stena Immaculate had a dedicated lookout on the bridge." The MAIB said its full investigation would examine "navigation and watchkeeping practices, manning and fatigue management, the condition and maintenance of the vessels involved and the environmental conditions at the time of crash."