Pallade Veneta - Captain of ship in North Sea crash charged with manslaughter

The captain was arrested Monday after his ship, the Solong, rammed into the tanker Stena Immaculate, setting both vessels ablaze.

"The captain of the Solong vessel, Vladimir Motin, 59-years-old, of Primorsky, St Petersburg, Russia, has been charged with Gross Negligence Manslaughter and been remanded in police custody to appear at Hull Magistrates Court" on Saturday, Humberside Police said in a statement.

It added that "extensive searches" were carried out by HM Coastguard to locate a missing crew member from the Solong, who is now presumed deceased.

The crew member was identified by state prosecutors as Mark Angelo Pernia, a 38-year-old Filipino.

The 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.

Fires burned on both ships for several days after the collision, requiring a massive firefighting response.

All crew members aboard the US-flagged Stena Immaculate were rescued.

The Russian embassy in London was quoted by the TASS news agency as saying Friday that none of the five Russian crew members on the Solong had been hurt in the incident.

It also said Russian consular officials had spoken to the captain by phone.

Although the British government has ruled out foul play, investigators are still determining the causes of the crash.

Pockets of fire were still being reported on the deck of the Solong on Thursday evening, according to the UK Coastguard.

"Extensive lines of enquiry are continuing," police said.

Salvage teams boarded the vessels on Thursday to carry out initial damage assessments.

burs-jwp/js

B.Cretella--PV