Russian captain in court over crash between oil tanker and cargo ship (2025)

The Russian captain of the MV Solong cargo ship has appeared in courtover the death of a sailor in the North Sea crash.

Vladimir Motin, a 59-year-old captain from St Petersburg, appeared at the Old Bailey via a videolink from Hull prison for his plea hearing today.

He is accused of gross negligence manslaughter and was charged days after the incident on March 10.

The hearing was adjourned until May 30 due to the absence of a Russian interpreter.

An environmental disaster was narrowly avoided after Solong rammed into the US-flagged MV Stena Immaculate anchored off the Humber Estuary last month.

Stena Immaculate was carrying more than 200,000 tons of highly flammable jet fuel, while both ships were full of heavy engine fuel.

All crew from Stena managed to escape, but one of Solong’s Filipino crew, Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, was lost at sea and is presumed dead.

Stena’s crew was praised for their ‘heroic’ actions as they triggered a fire safety system before abandoning ship.

It means that over 17,000 barrels of jet fuel spilled into the sea, but further loss was avoided.

Several explosions rocked the vessels, which were entangled following the collision, before they drifted apart with thick smoke billowing into the air for hours.

The crash left Stena Immaculate, which remained anchored, with a giant hole, while Solong began to drift along the coast as it was followed by tugboats ready to intervene.

Solong continued to drift and at one point it could be seen off the Lincolnshire coast.

Thousands of small plastic pellets from Solong’s containers leaked into the sea and were washed onto Norfolk beaches, triggering a clean-up operation.

Fellow sailors from Solong paid tribute to the missing seafarer Pernia, who had been working in the forward deck.

He was described as ‘a good guy and a hardworking man’ by seafarer Joel Jimenez, who became friends with him during the long trips.

He told the Independent: ‘He was always willing to work hard for his family, especially for his daughter.’

‘He was such a good man to have on your crew.’

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