KYW Flashback: Explosions In Marcus Hook When Freighter Collides With Tanker
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Coast Guard was meticulous. Twenty-six people dead or missing, another 11 injured and Marcus Hook had been shattered.
It took two years to determine how the freighter Edgar Queeny, collided with the tanker Corinthos, unloading volatile crude oil at the British Petroleum refinery on the Delaware River.
It was just after midnight on January 31st, 1975. A series of explosions triggered an inferno, engulfing the tanker and adjacent docks.
The first KYW reporter on the scene said Marcus Hook appeared like a "war zone." Every window in every home and business had been blown to shards. People fled their homes into the freezing night.
The Coast Guard conclusion: negligence by both the Edgar Queeny's pilot and captain for the deadly collision.