North Sea tanker and cargo ship collision latest: Crew of oil tanker safe, Stena boss says
www.bbc.com
More than 30 people have been brought ashore, as video shows both vessels on fire off the East Yorkshire coast.
  • Nighed@feddit.ukEnglish
    4·
    6 hours ago

    Oil tanker was likely carrying aviation fuel for the US military (as per the BBC).

    Let the conspiracy theories begin! (Does jet fuel melt ships!?!)

  • Iamsqueegee@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    8·
    8 hours ago

    If they just made these ships bigger so you could spot them more easily on a plane void of other vertical structures, then they couldn’t just sneak up on you out of nowhere.

  • SomethingBlack@lemmy.worldEnglish
    142·
    9 hours ago

    Now, I’m no expert but as I understand it, the North Sea is a pretty big place.

    How is this even possible with modern navigation and communication systems? Even archaic, navigation and communication systems would be able to prevent this from happening. A crows nest would probably be able to avoid this from happening.

    Am I crazy?

    • Nighed@feddit.ukEnglish
      3·
      6 hours ago

      This happened not far off the coast. Looks like the oil tanker was at anchor waiting, while the cargo ship ploughed into it.

      Oil tankers are not exactly the most nimble of ships, even if it tried to get out of the way.

      • SomethingBlack@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        6 hours ago

        I completely understand that neither would be very nimble but I’d expect with how large I’m sure both ships are (an assumption, I know) they shouldn’t need to be nimble to be able to avoid a collision if they’re so visible

        • Nighed@feddit.ukEnglish
          2·
          6 hours ago

          Their size makes them very hard to turn too, so you can see them a while off, but that doesn’t help if it takes Kms to stop.

          It also only helps if there is someone actually looking out of the window…

    • towerfulEnglish
      61·
      8 hours ago

      I don’t think ships have any collision avoidance systems, like aircrafts do.
      And I don’t think ships are actively monitored and instructed, like aircrafts are.

      Seems hard to believe that a ship travelling at 16 knots was unable to avoid a stationary ship.
      However, further down the BBC post, there is an image of all the ships in the area at the time of the collision.
      If it’s busy, I’d imagine the crew were alert. Equally, they might have been concentrating on something else.
      They had also just left port, so perhaps there was a change of shift/watch.

      There are a lot of laws regarding maritime navigation to avoid collision.
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Regulations_for_Preventing_Collisions_at_Sea
      Perhaps the cargo ship did not realise the tanker was anchored, and assumed they would move out of the way.

      Ultimately, everything is too recent to be able to understand what happened.

      Edit:
      Link to the post with the image of traffic at the time:
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cgq1pwjlqq2t?post=asset%3A6555b096-7f65-4270-9768-53eaae9531b4#post

    • witty_username@feddit.nlEnglish
      5·
      9 hours ago

      You are not. I would not be surprised if investigations will conclude that this happened as a result of negligence.