Russian captain of cargo vessel involved in North Sea collision charged
British police said the Russian captain of a cargo ship that collided with a US tanker has been charged over the death of a crew member, who is missing and presumed dead.
Vladimir Motin, who was the master of the Portugal-flagged cargo vessel Solong, will appear in Hull Magistrates’ Court on Saturday (local time) charged with what English legal authorities term "gross negligence manslaughter," Humberside Police said.
It wasn't immediately clear where Motin was being held or whether he has approved legal representation.
Motin, 59, who is from Primorsky, St Petersburg, was arrested in northeast England on Tuesday, a day after the collision with the MV Stena Immaculate, a tanker transporting jet fuel for the US military in the North Sea.
Humberside Police confirmed that the missing crew member is "now presumed dead" after extensive searches. It said the family are being supported by specialist trained officers.
The Crown Prosecution Service said Filipino national Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, has been named as the crew member who is presumed to have died in the collision.
"We have authorised Humberside Police to charge a Russian national in relation to a collision involving two vessels in the North Sea off the east coast of England," said Frank Ferguson, head of the prosecutor's office special crime and counter-terrorism division.
Shipping company Ernst Russ, which owns the Solong, has said previously that the ship’s 14 crew were a mix of Russian and Filipino nationals.
UK authorities have said there is nothing so far to indicate that it's connected to national security.
The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch is also involved in investigating what caused the Solong, bound from Grangemouth, Scotland, to Rotterdam, Netherlands, to hit the stationary tanker, which was anchored about 16km off the English coast.
The investigation is being led by the US and Portugal, the countries where the vessels are flagged.
North Sea ship collision: Man arrested on suspicion of manslaughter
Humberside police said the 59-year-old was detained "on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter in connection with the collision", but he has not been charged.
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Tanker and cargo ship collide and catch fire off UK coast
The collision triggered a major rescue operation by lifeboats, coast guard aircraft and commercial vessels, with all crew accounted for.
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Port inspection documents show the Solong failed steering-related safety checks in Dublin, Ireland, in July, with the vessel's "emergency steering position communications/compass reading” unreadable. Inspectors found a total of 10 deficiencies, including "inadequate" alarms, survival craft "not properly maintained" and fire doors "not as required".
An inspection in Scotland in October found two other deficiencies. The ship wasn't detained after either inspection.
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