Captain of container ship arrested over UK tanker crash

CGTN Europe

The owner of the oil tanker, hit by a cargo ship off the UK coast, has said that most of the fuel on board is not leaking, following environmental fears.  The captain of the cargo ship has been arrested. CGTN’s Micheal Murillier has the full report.

Transcript

00:00The owner of an oil tanker hit by a cargo ship off the English coast says most of the fuel on board is not leaking.

00:07There have been fears over the environmental impact of the collision on Monday.

00:11The American tanker was at anchor when it was hit by the Solon container ship.

00:15Meanwhile, the German company which owns the vessel, said the container's captain is a Russian national.

00:20He's been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

00:24Well, our correspondent Michael Morelia is on the East Yorkshire coast.

00:28So, Michael, what's happening first of all with this investigation?

00:34Well, Robin, the investigation into the role that this captain played is ongoing as we speak.

00:42The police are arresting that 59-year-old.

00:45It emerged this morning that he is a Russian national.

00:48That sparked all sorts of speculation as to whether there may be some sort of sabotage involved

00:54and geopolitical forces at play.

00:57But we must stress right now we have no indication from the police that that is the case.

01:03We also heard from a spokesperson for the British Prime Minister yesterday saying at first glance

01:10there was no indication of any foul play when it came to this incident.

01:16At the same time, we are getting reports that this cargo ship failed an inspection in July last year.

01:24That inspection happened in the port of Dublin in Ireland in July.

01:29One of the tests which had apparently failed, Robin, involved its emergency steering compass,

01:36which suggests that that may have played a role perhaps in what happened on Monday.

01:42But again, everyone here in Withensea and around the Humber area will only have an idea of what happened

01:49once the police release that investigation and once we get some more details from the investigating board,

01:56the MAIB, which is conducting a parallel investigation.

02:01So people I've spoken to here say they really want to know who's to blame,

02:06but at the moment it's a case of wait and see.

02:09And what more do we know about the possible environmental impacts and the cleanup operation?

02:15Well, Robin, we have seen some aircraft in this area.

02:19And if you look just behind me, if you go roughly 10 miles east off of this coast,

02:25that's where the wreckage of the Stena Immaculate is.

02:27We've seen a few aircraft in the region flying over.

02:31We think that that's really to assess the state of the collision site.

02:36We do know that the Stena Immaculate is no longer ablaze,

02:42which is good news from an environmental point of view.

02:45We understand also from the Coast Guard, Robin, that the cargo ship is to some extent under control.

02:52We know that there have been some flames still visible on that cargo ship.

02:58But the important thing here, Robin, is that a tugboat has now connected itself to that cargo ship

03:05and we understand it's being safely held offshore.

03:08That cargo ship had been drifting several miles from the collision site,

03:13but now with a tugboat connected to it,

03:16it seems that officials are able to control its movements at least to some extent.

03:22We also understand that some tests were conducted onshore, Robin,

03:27to test whether any toxins may have been released into the air.

03:31We know that some of the containers on that cargo ship contain sodium cyanide,

03:37which can be a toxic chemical, especially when it's released into the water.

03:42It seems from those tests that the air quality remains fine and has been unaffected.

03:48That seems to be the case. We'll have to wait to see if we get any more news on that.

03:53But it seems that very little sodium cyanide was on the ship.

03:57The containers may have contained some sodium cyanide at one stage,

04:02but weren't on board at the time of the accident.

04:06So, so far, it seems fairly good, relatively speaking, from an environmental point of view.

04:12Michael Marulia in East Yorkshire, thank you very much.

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