The North Sea swallowed a cry for help last March. A collision, starkly captured on CCTV, ignited a desperate scramble for survival and ultimately, the tragic loss of a life. Captain Vladimir Motin, 59, now stands trial, accused of negligence in an “entirely avoidable” disaster.
The container ship Solong, under Motin’s sole command, barreled towards the anchored oil tanker Stena Immaculate near the Humber Estuary. For a full minute, silence stretched on the Solong’s bridge before a hesitant radio call crackled: “Stena Immaculate, Stena Immaculate.” It was too late.
On the Stena Immaculate, the response was immediate and terrifying. A deafening crash ripped through the calm, followed by panicked shouts: “Holy sh…what just hit us…a container ship…this is no drill, this is no drill, fire fire fire, we have had a collision!” Alarms blared, horns wailed – a symphony of chaos.
Inside the Solong, a voice, laced with desperation, repeated a haunting plea: “Lord help us. Lord help us. Lord help us.” The scene unfolding was one of escalating catastrophe, a ship ablaze and a life lost to the unforgiving sea.
The defense concedes Motin failed to avoid the collision, but argues the extent of his fault remains to be determined. He acknowledged being solely responsible for navigating the Solong, aware of the Stena Immaculate’s presence on radar nine nautical miles distant, directly in their path.
The Solong, traveling at 16 knots on autopilot, closed the distance. When just three nautical miles away, Motin reportedly sighted the tanker visually. He then attempted to disengage autopilot and manually steer clear, aiming to pass behind the Stena Immaculate.
That attempt failed. The Solong held its course, the looming collision becoming inevitable. The question now facing the jury: why wait until one nautical mile – a dangerously close proximity – to attempt a maneuver? What should have been done sooner?
The prosecution contends the death of 38-year-old Mark Angelo Pernia was preventable. Pernia, working on the ship’s deck, was thrown overboard during the impact and has never been found. His absence casts a long shadow over the proceedings.
The collision unleashed a torrent of aviation fuel from the Stena Immaculate, engulfing both vessels in flames. The Solong’s crew launched a desperate search for Pernia, hampered by the raging fire. Motin himself abandoned ship via a ladder, followed by the remaining crew in a lifeboat.
The Solong, a 130-meter cargo ship carrying alcoholic spirits and hazardous materials, had departed Scotland bound for Rotterdam. The Stena Immaculate, a much larger tanker transporting over 220,000 barrels of jet fuel, was en route from Greece to the UK. The collision was a convergence of immense scale and devastating consequence.
Motin, from St. Petersburg, denies manslaughter. The Old Bailey trial continues, seeking to unravel the sequence of events and determine the degree of responsibility for a tragedy that unfolded on the cold, unforgiving waters of the North Sea.
