North Sea tanker: Ship carrying sodium cyanide hit tanker transporting jet fuel for US military
www.bbc.com
It is not clear if the sodium cyanide has entered the water, but jet fuel is spilling into the North Sea.
  • Nighed@feddit.ukEnglish
    1·
    8 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
    2·
    10 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
    0·
    11 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
      0·
      8 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·
        8 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
          1·
          8 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…

    • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      11 hours ago

      Most ships operate on autopilot. I’m guessing the one at anchor didn’t have its transponder running, and there was no one really paying attention on the bridge of the other, since 99.9% of the time the ship runs itself, and the ocean is a very big and empty space.

      But that’s mostly speculation.

      • Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radioEnglish
        1·
        10 hours ago

        Well, unless you’re talking about a different transponder, the Marine Traffic sites all show that the oil tanker that was hit was at anchor and her location is still being reported live by the transponder onboard.

        I also am fairly sure that there are heavy fines for turning it off, but I’m not a mariner and don’t pretend to be one on the internet.