36 people brought ashore after North Sea collision between oil tanker, cargo ship

March 10 (UPI) -- A shipping crash taking place off the coast of England Monday has left one person hospitalized and jet fuel spilled into the surrounding waters.

The collision occurred in the North Sea about 10 miles off the coast of East Yorkshire County, closest to the city of Hull, between the Stena Immaculate oil tanker and the Portuguese-flagged Solong cargo vessel.

All 36 people from the ships involved have since been brought ashore to the port town of Grimsby, in Lincolnshire County.

According to the ship tracking site MarineTraffic, the Stena Immaculate, which had been chartered by the United States military to bring Jet-A1 fuel to the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command, was anchored when it was struck by the Solong at around 9:48 a.m. local time.

Lifeboats and air support were called in to assist with the situation. All crew members of both ships are said to have survived.

The cause of the crash has not yet been determined, but heavy fog was reported to be present at the time of the incident. Videos show the ships have both been set ablaze. Independent maritime safety consultant David Mcfarlane told BBC News that information regarding the collision will become more evident once the data recorders from both vessels are retrieved, but "there should be no reason for two ships to collide," and that with existing regulations intended to avoid crashes like this, "something has gone very badly wrong." The United Kingdom's Marine Accident Investigation Branch has already deployed a team to the scene.

The situation has also resulted in an as-of-yet measured amount of jet fuel spilling into the sea. The Center for Marine Biodiversity and Biotechnology at Heriot-Watt University Marine ecotoxicologist Mark Hartl told The Guardian that despite stark images of the incident, "from the perspective of the impact to the aquatic environment it's less of a concern than if this had been crude oil because most of the jet fuel will evaporate very quickly."

Hartl also explained that while the collision happening out at sea will minimize the overall environmental impact, "it will have an acute effect on organisms in the immediate aftermath of the spill and lead to various degrees of stress in exposed animals," and that "There must also be a concern that heavier ship fuel was spilled as a consequence of the collision which could have a more lasting effect on the coastline."

BBC News has also reported that the Solong was carrying 15 containers of the chemical sodium cyanide among other cargo, but there have not been reports that any sodium cyanide had been spilled or lost during the situation.

The U.K. Health Security Agency website says sodium cyanide can cause a variety of health problems, and potentially death.