Captain jailed for six years for fatal crash off Yorkshire

Russian Vladimir Motin had been on sole watch duty when the Solong collided with the Stena Immaculate anchored near the Humber Estuary at 9.47am on March 10 last year.

Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, who was working on the Solong’s bow, died instantly in the fire, although his body was never recovered.

Mark Angelo Pernia (Image: Crown Prosecution Service/PA Wire)

The Filipino man had a five-year-old child at the time of the collision but he never met his second child, who was born two months after his death.

At his trial, Motin claimed he knew the Stena Immaculate was up ahead but pressed the wrong button to take the Solong out of autopilot and steer safely away.

Motin denied he had been asleep or had left his post on the bridge.

The prosecution asserted that Motin failed to keep a proper watch for a lengthy period of time and then failed to sound the alarm, summon help or warn either crew of the impending disaster.

Captain Vladimir Motin, 59, who has been jailed (Image: Crown Prosecution Service)

A jury deliberated for eight hours to find Motin, 59, from St Petersburg, guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence.

Jailing Motin for six years, Mr Justice Andrew Baker told him: “You were a serious accident waiting to happen.”

Motin had shown a “blatant disregard for the very high risk of death” and fallen prey to his own complacency and arrogance, the judge said.

Death was ‘wholly avoidable’, says judge

Mr Pernia was described by colleagues as a friend and had appeared “quietly confident, at ease, a man upon whom one might depend”, the court heard.

His death was “wholly avoidable” and the blame lay squarely on the defendant, the judge said.

Other members of the Solong and Stena Immaculate crew could have died and the crash caused “huge” destruction of the cargo, he added.

The senior judge said Motin’s account was “highly implausible”, adding his explanation he did not initiate a crash stop for fear of hitting the accommodation block of the Stena Immaculate was “desperate stuff”.

Tug boats shadow the Solong container ship as it drifts in the Humber Estuary, off the coast of East Yorkshire following a collision with the MV Stena Immaculate oil tanker, operating as part of the US government’s Tanker Security Programme (Image: Danny Lawson/PA Wire)

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Pernia’s widow Leacel said no amount of compensation made up for the “pain” of her loss and the impact on her young family.

In mitigation, James Leonard KC conveyed the defendant’s “shame” at what happened, his condolence to Mr Pernia’s family and his vow never go to sea again.

The defence barrister highlighted the experienced mariner’s “blameless” previous record, saying: “This was truly an aberration of his conduct.”

Previously, the court heard the Solong, which was 130 metres long and weighed 7,852 gross tonnes, had left Grangemouth in Scotland at 9.05pm on March 9 bound for the port of Rotterdam in Holland.

With a 14-strong crew, it was carrying mainly alcoholic spirits and some hazardous substances, including empty but unclean sodium cyanide containers.

The Stena Immaculate, with a crew of 23, was 183.2 metres long and was transporting more than 220,000 barrels of JetA1 high-grade aviation fuel from Greece to the UK.

With both ships laden with flammable cargo, the danger in the event of a collision was obvious, jurors were told.

Motin was responsible for multiple failures in the lead-up to the tragedy and then lied about what took place on the bridge, the prosecution said.

The Stena Immaculate was visible on the Solong’s radar display for 36 minutes before impact, yet Motin did nothing to steer away from the collision course.

He failed to summon help, slow down, sound the alarm to alert crews of both ships or instigate a crash stop as a last resort, the prosecution said.

Dramatic CCTV footage captured the moment both ships were consumed in a massive blaze ignited by leaking fuel from the Stena Immaculate.

The shocked crew aboard the US tanker reacted instantly, saying: “Holy s*** … what just hit us … a container ship … this is no drill, this is no drill, fire fire fire, we have had a collision.”

Jurors heard a lengthy silence from the bridge of the Solong before it crashed into the oil tanker at a speed of 15.2 knots. A full minute elapsed before Motin was heard to react.

Motin and the remaining Solong crew abandoned ship and were taken ashore in Grimsby, where the defendant messaged his wife, saying he would be “guilty”.

Jurors heard Motin had switched off the Solong’s bridge navigation watch alert system (BNWAS), which was designed to ensure there is someone physically on the bridge and awake.