Russian Captain of Solong Ship Arrested On Suspicion of Gross Negligence Manslaughter

The U.K Police have arrested the Captain of the Solong Cargo vessel, which collided with the US Oil tanker Stena Immaculate.

The 59-year old man, who is a Russian national, has been taken on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, linked to the recent North Sea Collision accident, involving the cargo ship and the oil tanker which led to an explosion and set the ships ablaze.

However, the man was not named by the police and has not been charged.

A crew member from the Solong ship was presumed dead, and it is not likely that the drifting vessel would stay afloat.

The remaining 36 crew members from the two ships were brought ashore safely in the Grimsby Port with no serious injuries.

The cause of the incident and how it happened is yet to be found, and authorities are investigating why several safety systems onboard these advanced ships failed to prevent the catastrophe.

Detective Chief Superintendent Craig Nicholson stated that Humberside Police are looking into any potential criminal offences that arise from the collision.

Video Credits: The Mirror

However, on Tuesday, a spokesperson for British P.M. Keir Starmer said that the incident does not give any impression of a ‘foul play’.

Greenpeace U.K also expressed their concerns about the environmental damage from the accident as it happened near environmentally sensitive regions.

The Stena Immaculate was carrying Jet-A1 fuel for the U.S. military. One of its 16 fuel tanks was ruptured in the collision.

There are fears that the leaked fuel could cause pollution, harming seabirds, including gannets and puffins and marine life.

There were concerns that Solong was loaded with sodium cyanide, but Ernst Russ, the ship managing company, said that was not the case.

The U.K. Coast Guard Agency said that Solong was still on fire while the fire on Stena Immaculate had ‘greatly diminished.

The Agency also said that the Solong was drifting south, away from the oil tanker and about a kilometre exclusion zone had been put in place around both vessels for safety reasons.

References: Sky News, Al Jazeera