Russian captain arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter
The captain of the Portuguese-flagged cargo ship that hit a U.S. tanker off northeast England on Monday is a Russian national, the company which owns the vessel has said as police continued their inquiries into the incident.
British police arrested Solong’s captain yesterday, on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. It was not made clear at this point that he was a Russian national.
The 59-year-old is being kept in police custody while detectives conduct inquiries alongside other authorities as to how this collision came about.
Ernst Russ, the Germany company that owns the Solong, has said it 14-strong crew (one of whom is missing presumed dead) was made up of Russian and Filipino nationals.
Reuters has said that an emailed request for a comment from the Russian embassy in London has not yet received a reply.
Confusing this issue even further was the statement by a spokesman for the British prime minister who said yesterday that there was no suggestion of āfoul playā. It is possible this statement was made without the knowledge of suspicions of gross negligence manslaughter. Other reports, for example, suggest America has not ruled anything out: “The cause of the crash remains under scrutiny, with a senior White House official telling Captain.com that foul play, including the possibility of the Solong being hacked by hostile entities like Russia, has not been ruled out”, writes Bill Giannopoulos of greekcitytimes.com today.
This far both the operators of the vessels involved in the collision, and maritime authorities, have been unable to offer an explanation of why multiple safety systems on board such modern vessels failed to prevent what has been a catastrophic collision.
It has become clear since Monday that the Solong showed āsome minor issues when it was inspected last yearā , but according to Ernst Russ these were all “promptly rectified”, thus there should have been no reasons for any malfunctions in safety systems last Monday.
While British police and local authorities are heavily involved in this investigation, overall responsibility for it is said to lie with the Portuguese and U.S. authorities, as āflag statesā of the vessels involved.
Reutersā report today cites shipping officials as saying that āRussians account for an estimate 11% of the global seafarer workforce (…) Russian and Ukrainian nationals are both among the leading professionals at higher grades, including captainsā.
As reported yesterday, there are considerable environmental concerns about the consequences of this incident: the U.S tanker was carrying 18,000 tons of jet fuel, while the Solong was reported to be carrying potentially dangerous chemicals, although this has since been denied.
