Ship crash captain questioned over actions

The captain of a cargo ship that crashed into another ship killing a crew member has been questioned about his actions at an Old Bailey trial.

Vladimir Motin was the only person on watch duty on the Solong when it hit US tanker Stena Immaculate off the East Yorkshire coast on 10 March 2025, leaving Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, missing presumed dead.

Prosecutor Tom Little KC challenged Motin over his failure to sound the alarm, summon help or act sooner to avoid the collision.

Motin, 59, from Primorsky in St Petersburg, Russia, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of gross negligence manslaughter.

Little suggested the defendant did not keep a proper lookout and he did not use all available means to determine the risk of a collision or leave enough time to take evasive action.

Motin denied the allegations.

Little said: "I suggest you could have easily steered away and avoided collision."

The defendant said he had made a "mistake" when he attempted to switch over to manual and did not realise the autopilot was still on.

The Stena Immaculate, with a crew of 23, was transporting more than 220,000 barrels of aviation fuel from Greece to the UK.

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

The prosecutor asked: "Was it foreseeable that you could have killed somebody either by being knocked overboard or in any number of different ways because of this collision?"

Motin said he had no knowledge of the contents aboard the tanker before the collision.

"The tanker could have had flammable goods?" Little asked.

Motin replied: "Yeah, OK. I understand, but what you want from me?"

Little continued: "Whether you agree with that proposition. You collided with Stena Immaculate at 16 knots, metal-on-metal, creating a spark."

The defendant replied: "Spark will always be created."

The prosecutor said: "So I suggest the nature of this collision was foreseeable, that there was a serious and obvious risk of death to someone on the Solong or Stena Immaculate."

Motin replied: "I cannot make any assumption, yes or no."

Little went on: "I suggest had you sounded that alarm in time, Mark Pernia would have been able to get out of the bow and he would have survived."

The prosecutor rejected the defendant's claim that he "didn't know" Mr Pernia was on the bow, pointing out that he had been on duty and had been working in that area.

Concluding his cross-examination, he said: "If there had been no collision, Mark Pernia would obviously still be alive."

"Yes," Motin replied.

The trial continues.

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