Source: ABC Local 10
British police said Friday the Russian captain of a ship that collided with a U.S. 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 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 U.S. military in the North Sea.
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.
The investigation is being led by the U.S. and Portugal, the countries where the vessels are flagged.
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.”
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