Arrested captain of cargo vessel involved in North Sea crash is Russian, ship owner says
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LONDON — The captain of a cargo ship that crashed with a U.S. tanker is a Russian national who remains in U.K. police custody, the vessel’s owner said Wednesday, as it emerged that the ship failed several safety checks last year.
The 59-year-old man, who hasn’t been named by authorities, was arrested by police in northeast England Tuesday on suspicion of manslaughter by gross negligence over the crash. He hasn’t been charged.
Shipping company Ernst Russ, which owns the Portugal-flagged cargo vessel Solong, said that the ship’s 14 crew members were a mix of Russian and Filipino nationals.
U.K. authorities say they have found no evidence of foul play in the crash, and there is nothing so far to indicate that it’s connected to national security. Humberside Police said that detectives were conducting inquiries alongside partner agencies.
The U.K. 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 10 miles off the English coast.
Jet fuel from a ruptured tank poured into the North Sea after the Portugal-registered container ship Solong broadsided the U.S.-flagged tanker.
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 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.
The cargo ship crashed Monday with MV Stena Immaculate, a tanker transporting jet fuel for the U.S. military in the North Sea off eastern England on Monday, setting both vessels ablaze. One sailor from the Solong is missing and presumed dead. The other 36 crew members from the two vessels were brought safely ashore, with no major injuries.
The Solong was drifting and still smoldering Wednesday, but is likely to remain afloat, officials said.
The collision triggered a major rescue operation by lifeboats, coast guard aircraft and commercial vessels.
The 596-foot Stena Immaculate was operating as part of the U.S. government’s Tanker Security Program, a group of commercial vessels that can be contracted to carry fuel for the military when needed.
The crash sent jet fuel pouring into the sea and sparked fears of significant environmental damage. Environmentalists said that oil and chemicals posed a risk to sea life, including whales and dolphins, and to birds, including puffins, gannets and guillemots that live on coastal cliffs.
The U.K. coast guard agency said that no new pollution had been reported since the initial incident, and environmental campaigning group Greenpeace said the effects on marine life may not be as bad as first feared.
“We’re not quite out of the danger zone yet, but it’s starting to look like an environmental disaster may have been narrowly averted,” said Paul Johnston from the Greenpeace Research Laboratories. “When a container ship the length of a football pitch rams into a tanker carrying thousands of tons of jet fuel at 16 knots close to sensitive nature sites, the potential for serious harm is huge.”
Lawless writes for the Associated Press. Pan Pylas contributed to this report.
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