Ship owner says arrested captain of cargo vessel involved in North Sea collision is Russian

The captain of a cargo ship that collided with a U.S. tanker is a Russian national who remains in U.K. police custody, the vessel’s owner said Wednesday, as it emerged that the ship failed several safety checks last year.

The 59-year-old man, who hasn't been named by authorities, was arrested by police in northeast England Tuesday on suspicion of manslaughter by gross negligence over the collision. He hasn't been charged.

Shipping company Ernst Russ, which owns the Portugal-flagged cargo vessel Solong, said that the ship’s 14 crew were a mix of Russian and Filipino nationals.

UK authorities say they have so far found no evidence of foul play in the crash. Humberside Police said that detectives were conducting inquiries alongside partner agencies.

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch is also involved in investigating what caused the Solong, bound from Grangemouth, Scotland, to Rotterdam, Netherlands, to hit the stationary tanker, which was anchored about 10 miles (16 kilometers) off the English coast.

The investigation is being led by the U.S. and Portugal, the countries where the vessels are flagged.

Port inspection documents show the Solong failed steering-related safety checks in Dublin, Ireland, in July, with the vessel's "emergency steering position communications/compass reading” unreadable. Inspectors found a total of 10 deficiencies, including “inadequate” alarms, survival craft “not properly maintained” and fire doors “not as required."

An inspection in Scotland in October found two other deficiencies. The ship wasn't detained after either inspection.

The cargo ship collided Monday with MV Stena Immaculate, a tanker transporting jet fuel for the U.S. military in the North Sea off eastern England on Monday, setting both vessels ablaze. One sailor from the Solong is missing and presumed dead. The other 36 crew members from the two vessels were brought safely ashore, with no major injuries.

The Solong was drifting and still on fire Wednesday, but is likely to remain afloat rather than sinking, officials said.

The 183-meter (596-foot) Stena Immaculate was operating as part of the U.S. government’s Tanker Security Program, a group of commercial vessels that can be contracted to carry fuel for the military when needed.

The collision sent jet fuel pouring into the sea and sparked fears of significant environmental damage. Environmentalists said that oil and chemicals posed a risk to sea life, including whales and dolphins and to birds, including puffins, gannets and guillemots that live on coastal cliffs.

Environmental campaigning group Greenpeace expressed hope that the impact on local marine life may not be as bad as first feared.

“We’re not quite out of the danger zone yet, but it’s starting to look like an environmental disaster may have been narrowly averted," said Dr. Paul Johnston from the Greenpeace Research Laboratories. “When a container ship the length of a football pitch rams into a tanker carrying thousands of tons of jet fuel at 16 knots close to sensitive nature sites, the potential for serious harm is huge.”

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