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The captain of a cargo ship that collided with an oil tanker in the North Sea has appeared in court charged with gross negligence manslaughter over the death of a crew member.<\/p>\n
The Portuguese-flagged Solong and US-registered tanker Stena Immaculate crashed off the East Yorkshire coast at about 10:00 GMT on Monday.<\/p>\n
Filipino national Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, was named as the crew member of the Solong who was missing and presumed dead, the Crown Prosecution Service said.<\/p>\n
Vladimir Motin, 59, of Primorsky in St Petersburg, Russia, spoke through a translator to confirm his name, age and address and was remanded in custody to appear at the Central Criminal Court in London on 14 April.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
No application for bail was made.<\/p>\n
Mr Motin was arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter on Monday evening, hours after the collision.<\/p>\n
Humberside Police said he had been charged on Friday evening.<\/p>\n
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) is trying to establish the cause of the crash.<\/p>\n
It said initial inquiries found the Solong was travelling from Grangemouth to Rotterdam and had often sailed the same route.<\/p>\n
“At 09:47 GMT it struck the Stena Immaculate that was at anchor off the entrance to the River Humber,” the MAIB said.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Stena Bulk said salvage experts from SMIT Salvage had successfully boarded Stena Immaculate to conduct a thorough assessment. The vessel was carrying 220,000 barrels of aviation fuel.<\/p>\n
The Stena Immaculate is still at anchor at the point where the collision happened, which is about 12 miles off the East Yorkshire coast, near Withernsea.<\/p>\n
The MAIB said the salvage process was “necessarily methodical, comprehensive and ongoing” and would “require time to complete fully”.<\/p>\n
Chief coastguard Paddy O’Callaghan said that aerial surveillance flights continued to monitor the vessels and confirmed “there continues to be no cause for concern from pollution” from either ship.<\/p>\n
All 23 crew on board Stena Immaculate were Americans who are currently in Grimsby and are likely to be repatriated in due course, the BBC understands.<\/p>\n
Listen to highlights from<\/i> Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds<\/a>, watch the <\/i>latest episode of Look North<\/a> or tell us about a story you think we should be covering<\/i> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n