The captain of a container ship that crashed into an American oil tanker off the east coast of Great Britain has appeared on a English court accused of homicide for serious negligence.
The 59 -year -old Vladimir National Motor, was captain of the Solong with Portuguese flag that hit the Immaculate Petroleum of Stena, transporting military fuel of airplanes, Monday morning.
Motin, who was accused on Friday night, appeared in the Court of Magistrates of Hull on Saturday for the death of Filipino National and the member of the Crew of Solong, Mark Angelo Pernia, 38.
Prosecutor Amelia Katz said that the Solong was traveling at a speed of more than 15 knots (27.8 km/h) when she hit Stena’s immaculate, which had been anchored in the same position since Sunday night, “more than 15 hours before the collision occurred.”
She said Motin was the only person in charge of the Solong at the time of the collision, having taken charge about three hours before the incident.
“For a period of more than 40 minutes before the collision, the Solong was on a direct route for the impact with the Immaculate Stena, which was anchored and stationary,” Katz said.
“There were no attempts to communicate from Solong to warn about imminent collision and the Solong did not adjust its course or speed at any time.”
The 23 members of the Stena Immaculate crew and 13 of the 14 crew members in the Solong were rescued.
“Some of the other crew members made attempts in Solong to locate pernia, but they couldn’t,” Katz said.
Motin did not make a bail request and was arrested in custody.
The collision caused a great explosion and spilled fuel for airplanes in the sea.
The initial concerns about an environmental disaster decreased, since the evaluations showed that the fuel for aircraft had been burned mainly and there were no signs of other leaks of any of the ships.
