Russian captain of ship in North Sea crash charged with manslaughter
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Smoke billowing from the MV Solong cargo ship in the North Sea off Britain, after it collided with a tanker carrying jet fuel on March 10.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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LONDON - The Russian captain of a cargo ship involved in a March 10 crash with a tanker in the North Sea off the coast of England was charged on March 14 with gross negligence manslaughter, UK police said.
The captain was arrested on March 10 after his ship, the Solong, rammed into the tanker Stena Immaculate, setting both vessels ablaze.
“The captain of the Solong vessel, Vladimir Motin, 59-years-old, of Primorsky, St Petersburg, Russia, has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter and been remanded in police custody to appear at Hull Magistrates Court” on March 15, Humberside Police said in a statement.
It added that “extensive searches” were carried out by HM Coastguard to locate a missing crew member from the Solong, who is now presumed deceased.
The crew member was identified by state prosecutors as Mark Angelo Pernia, a 38-year-old Filipino.
The tanker, which had been chartered by the US military, was anchored off the coast of Hull in northeastern England at the time of the crash.
Police were granted two extensions on March 12 and 13 to allow more time to question the captain given “the complexities of the incident”, the Humberside police force said in a statement.
Fires burned on both ships for several days after the collision, requiring a massive firefighting response.
All crew members aboard the US-flagged Stena Immaculate were rescued.
The Russian embassy in London was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying on March 14 that none of the five Russian crew members on the Solong had been hurt in the incident.
It also said Russian consular officials had spoken to the captain by phone.
Although the British government has ruled out foul play, investigators are still determining the causes of the crash.
Pockets of fire were still being reported on the deck of the Solong on March 13, according to the UK Coastguard.
“Extensive lines of enquiry are continuing,” police said.
Salvage teams boarded the vessels on March 13 to carry out initial damage assessments. AFP
