KINGSTON UPON HULL: The Russian captain of a cargo ship which struck a tanker in the North Sea off the UK’s northeastern coast appeared in court Saturday charged with gross negligence manslaughter.
Vladimir Motin, 59, appeared before magistrates in the port of Hull where he was remanded in custody. He did not enter a plea, and will next appear in the Old Bailey in London on April 14.
Motin, from Primorsky, St Petersburg, was arrested on Monday after his ship, the Portuguese-flagged Solong, rammed into the fuel-laden tanker Stena Immaculate, setting both vessels ablaze.
Humberside Police said earlier that “extensive searches” by HM Coastguard to locate a missing crew member from the Solong had failed to locate him.
The crew member was identified by state prosecutors as Mark Angelo Pernia, a 38-year-old Filipino, who is now presumed dead, police said.
The US-flagged tanker, which had been chartered by the US military, was anchored off the coast of Hull in northeastern England at the time of the crash.
Police were granted two extensions on Wednesday and Thursday to allow more time to question the captain given “the complexities of the incident”, the Humberside police force said in a statement.
An investigation led by the UK, with US and Portuguese teams, has been launched to determine the exact cause of the collision, and why the Solong did not deviate its course as it ploughed into the tanker.
The UK government has ruled out foul play so far.
