The captain of the Russian container ship that crashed into a US oil tanker in the North Sea, killing a crew member, has appeared in court.
Vladimir Motin of Primorsky, St Petersburg, in Russia was charged with gross negligence manslaughter over the collision earlier this week.
Motin, 59, appeared at Hull magistrates court on Saturday morning, where he heard the charges against him and was remanded in custody.
The Crown Prosecution Service said a 38-year-od Filipino national, Mark Angelo Pernia, had died after the collision between the Solong and the Stena Immaculate off the east coast of Yorkshire.
Thirty-six people from both vessels made it ashore.
Officers received reports at 11am on Monday that two vessels had collided and one crew member was missing.
A statement from Humberside police said: “An investigation by Humberside police supported by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency into the collision between a tanker and a cargo vessel in the North Sea, off the coast of East Yorkshire, has resulted in a man being charged.”
The US-flagged Stena Immaculate is still at anchor at the point where the collision happened, about 12 miles off the East Yorkshire coast, near Withernsea.
The ship was carrying jet fuel for the US military.
The Solong drifted south, to a point where it could be seen off the Lincolnshire coast.
It was sailing from Grangemouth in Scotland to Rotterdam in the Netherlands when the crash happened.
On Friday, the chief coastguard Paddy O’Callaghan said the vessels were stable and salvors had boarded them both to continue damage assessments.
He said: “There are now only small periodic pockets of fire on the Solong which are not causing undue concern.
“Specialist tugs with firefighting capability remain at both vessels’ locations.
“Regular aerial surveillance flights continue to monitor the vessels and confirm that there continues to be no cause for concern from pollution from either the Stena Immaculate or from the Solong.”
Motin will appear next at the Old Bailey on 14 April.
