Captain to blame for crewman’s death in ‘entirely avoidable’ collision – court

A Russian ship captain has gone on trial over the “entirely avoidable” death of one of his crew in a collision with an oil tanker anchored near the Humber Estuary, a court has heard.

Captain Vladimir Motin, 59, was on sole watch duty when his vessel, the container ship Solong, collided into the US oil tanker the Stena Immaculate, causing the death of Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, last March 10.

Opening his Old Bailey trial on Tuesday, prosecutor Tom Little KC said the case involved the “entirely avoidable death” of the seaman.

He told jurors: “Ultimately, he would still be alive if it was not for the grossly negligent conduct of the man in the dock, the defendant, and who was the captain of the very vessel upon which the seaman who lost his life was working.

“The captain owed him a duty of care to keep him safe and the defendant, we say, manifestly breached that duty of care and caused his death. The risk of death was serious and obvious and negligence was so bad that it was gross.”

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

The vessel, with a 14-strong crew, was carrying mainly alcoholic spirits and some hazardous substances, including empty but unclean sodium cyanide containers, the court was told.

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.

Its engine was shut down on the evening of last March 9. Restarting it would have taken about 30 to 45 minutes and about 35 minutes to manoeuvre away from an incoming ship, the court heard.

The two vessels crashed just over 12 hours after the Solong set off from Grangemouth.

The location of the Stena Immaculate would have been visible on the Solong’s radar display about 36 minutes before the vessels collided, Mr Little said.

On the morning of March 10 2025, the Solong was in the North Sea approaching an area where other ships, including the Stena Immaculate, were anchored.

The Solong had been travelling at just over 16 knots in the minutes before the collision and was going 15.2 knots on impact with no warning to the Stena Immaculate.

Mr Little said: “Despite an obvious collision course, the defendant did not deviate his vessel from its path and the impending catastrophe that lay ahead.

“The defendant was responsible for navigating the ship, not only because he was the captain but because he was on sole watch duty at the time and ultimately, he did nothing, absolutely nothing, to avoid the collision.”

At about 9.47am, the front of the Solong crashed into the side of the anchored Stena Immaculate.

The US registered tanker was carrying large quantities of aviation fuel which leaked out, causing fire to spread across both ships, jurors were told.

Mr Pernia was working at the front of the Solong and died in the collision, although his body has never been found, Mr Little said.

The Solong was on a direct collision course for much longer than a matter of minutes, jurors were told.

The collision course was obvious when the tanker became visible to the naked eye and, before that, on computer equipment available to the defendant, the court heard.

Motin had a “constellation of information” telling him he needed to act but did the opposite and failed to avert the collision, jurors heard.

There were a number of things the “highly trained” captain “could and should have done”, Mr Little said.

“It is this gross breach of duty to the man he killed, and indeed to his own crew, that led inexorably to a death and to him being on trial before you at the Old Bailey,” the prosecutor said.

Motin, from Primorsky, St Petersburg, has denied manslaughter and the trial continues.