Russian ship captain jailed for six years over deadly tanker crash

A Russian captain has been sentenced over the death of a sailor on board Solong cargo ship after he ‘failed to keep a proper lookout.’

Vladimir Motin, 59, has been sentenced to six years in jail after the deadly crash in the Humber Estuary when Solong smashed into Stena Immaculate carrying fuel for US fighter jets.

The Russian captain was on sole watch duty on March 10 last year moments before the crash, which killed Mark Angelo Pernia, 38.

Pernia died in the subsequent blaze when it tore through Solong while he was working on the ship’s bow. His body has never been found after the disaster in the Humber Estuary.

Jailing Motin for six years, Mr Justice Andrew Baker told him: ‘You were a serious accident waiting to happen.’

Motin had shown a ‘blatant disregard for the very high risk of death’ and fallen prey to his own complacency and arrogance, the judge said.

The Filipino sailor, a dad of a five-year-old child, never met his second child, who was born two months after he died in the UK waters.

Motin, from St Petersburg, was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence on Monday after a jury’s eight-hour deliberation, and he has now been sentenced.

Mr Justice Andrew Baker said the captain’s account of what happened was ‘highly implausible’ and that it was ‘extremely problematic,’ ‘improbable’ and ‘even worse’ than the prosecution’s version of events.

Justice Baker said Motin, who was accused of giving two different accounts to the police and the jurors, led the jurors on a ‘merry dance’ in his evidence, which was an ‘exercise in inventive distraction.’

He said: ‘His claim to be confused was a lie that unravelled when tested at trial.’

The crash involving the two massive vessels with flammable cargo sparked a search and rescue operation in the estuary and beyond, with fears that it could lead to a large-scale environmental disaster.

Solong continued to burn for hours as it drifted along the East Yorkshire coast flanked by tugboats following the crash, while the US-flagged Stena Immaculate miraculously stayed anchored.

The court heard previously what happened just before the collisions, with Motin identified as responsible for multiple failures in the lead-up to the crash and lying about his actions in the aftermath.

Solong, measuring around 426-feet and weighing around 7,852 tonnes, had left Grangemouth in Scotland on March 9, headed to Rotterdam in the Netherlands with 14 crew members on board.

It was carrying alcoholic spirits and some hazardous substances, including empty but unclean sodium cyanide containers.

Meanwhile, Stena Immaculate and its crew of 23 had left Greece on its way to the UK when Solong rammed into it.

The 601-foot tanker was laden with over 220,000 barrels of aviation fuel destined for US aircraft.

Stena Immaculate was visible on Solong’s radars 36 minutes before the smash, but Motin did nothing to steer away, prosecutors said.

The prosecutors detailed a string of failures by the captain, including failing to call for help, slow down, sound the alarm to alert crews on both ships or instigate an emergency stop as a last resort.

Jurors heard how Motin had allegedly switched off the navigation watch alert system designed to ensure a sailor is physically on the bridge and awake, leading to accusations that he may have been asleep.

His failures were labelled ‘exceptionally bad, they amount to gross negligence’ by the prosecution.

After Solong’s impact with the tanker at a speed of 15.2 knots (around 17.4 mph), Stena’s crew reacted instantly and radioed the chilling announcement: ‘Holy s**t… what just hit us… a container ship… this is no drill, this is no drill, fire fire fire, we have had a collision.’

There was reportedly a full minute before Motin was heard to react.

Motin and the remaining Solong crew abandoned ship and were taken ashore in Grimsby.

The captain messaged his wife from ashore, saying he would be ‘guilty.’

Motin had been previously accused of being asleep or having left his position on the command bridge, which he denied.

He told the jury in his defence that he didn’t take action immediately when he saw Stena Immaculate directly ahead because it was moving slowly but unpredictably.

Motin said he then pressed the wrong button by ‘mistake’ when trying to take Solong out of autopilot and steer away one nautical mile away (around 1.1 miles).

He told jurors he didn’t realise the error and proceeded to stop and restart the steering gear to no effect, causing him to think Solong may have developed a rudder fault similar to its sister vessel, Sanskip Express.

Fearing the Solong could smash into Stena’s accommodation block and kill the American sailors, he decided against a crash stop, Motin argued in his defence.

Justice Baker said this explanation was ‘desperate stuff.’

Prosecutors suggested that Motin had lief about what happened to ‘get back to his wife’ in Russia and gave differing accounts to police and jurors.

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