New footage shows a massive hole on the port side of a U.S. oil tanker that was struck by a container ship on Monday morning in the North Sea, off the coast of East Yorkshire. By Tuesday morning, the blaze on the tanker appeared to be mostly extinguished.
BBC News released live aerial footage earlier from the incident area, showing the crippled tanker Stena Immaculate. Video revealed a massive hole on the vessel’s port side, caused when the container ship Solong plowed into the tanker, which was carrying jet fuel for the U.S. Navy.
Watch the video here.
Sal Mercogliano, a professor at Campbell University and the host of the What Is Going On With Shipping? show on YouTube, commented on the maritime incident, noting, “It does not appear that Solong targeted the US flag tanker.”
Mercogliano continued: “This looks like the ship was on an automated setting with poor watch standing to blame.”
But what about the possibility of Solong’s navigation systems being hacked by state actors or GPS spoofing that could’ve led to the accident… It’s a factor worth considering, especially given that the tanker’s valuable cargo was intended for U.S. Navy fighter jets, bombers, and helicopters.
Also, let’s not forget that there is a war in Eastern Europe, and spillovers have been plentiful, including the demolition of the Nord Stream undersea pipeline. Plus, there has been an increase in Baltic Sea cable-cutting incidents recently, along with a mysterious sinking of a Russian military cargo ship in the Mediterranean late last year. In the fog of war, it’s difficult to determine whether incidents outside of Ukraine are connected.
Meanwhile, the environmental impact of the North Sea incident threatens to spark a disaster for the UK.
Martin Slater, director of operations at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, told Bloomberg:
“If pollution spillage enters the Humber, this could potentially be devasting for the wildlife of the estuary, including important fish stocks and tens of thousands of overwintering and migrating birds who use the mud flats.
“Many birds are gathering offshore on the sea ahead of the nesting season and we still have wintering waders – plus migrant birds stopping here.”
Question everything in the fog of war.
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