Solong Captain Denies Falling Asleep Before Hitting Stena Immaculate
The manslaughter trial of the captain of the containership Solong continued in London on Monday, with the captain remaining on the witness stand, responding to questions. Captain Vladimir Motin, age 59, denies the single charge of gross negligence manslaughter for one crewmember from the cargo ship.
The lawyer for the defense, James Leonard, questioned the captain. He twice asked if the captain had fallen asleep while he was the only person on the bridge and responsible for navigating the ship. Leonard also asked the captain if he had left the bridge, possibly for a bathroom break or to get coffee.
Motin repeatedly said no to each of the questions. He denied leaving his post and said that two people, the chief engineer and the ship’s cook, had come to the bridge that morning and saw him working. Motin ended the questioning, asserting he had not left the bridge since the start of his watch at 0800 that morning.
The court previously heard that investigators had found that the vessel’s bridge motion alarm system had been turned off, possibly for months. Motin confirmed the system was not in use but said it had nothing to do with the Solong hitting the anchored tanker Stena Immaculate. The system requires a person on the bridge to press a button every 30 minutes to confirm presence and activity on the bridge, and if the button is not pressed, it sounds an alarm throughout the ship. The morning of the allision, the Solong was operating on its autopilot.
Motin told the court that Mark Anthony Pernia, the missing seafarer who is presumed to have died when the Solong rammed the Stena Immaculate, or the subsequent fire, had been assigned to lookout duty that morning. The captain said, however, visibility never fell below two nautical miles, so Pernia was instead assisting the chief engineer with repairs. The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch, in its preliminary report, asserted that there was patchy visibility that morning and criticized the ship for a lack of a lookout.
The captain told the court he had first become aware of the Stena Immaculate at a distance of 10 to 12 nautical miles. Reports said he attempted to turn the Solong at about one nautical mile from the tanker. He claims the autopilot did not disengage, and last week told the court of other steering problems on a sister ship.
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The criminal trial taking place in London is expected to take several weeks. It is separate from the civil claims filed by the charter of the tanker and the owner of the containership.
The Solong was sailing from Scotland to the Netherlands when it hit the Stena Immaculate on March 10, 2025. One of the tanks loaded with jet fuel was punctured on the tanker, enveloping both ships in an inferno. Pernia was believed to have been working on the bow of the Solong. He was never found. The crews of both ships were rescued by passing workboats from the offshore wind industry and the British authorities.
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