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tJury a Caernarfon inquest has returned a verdict of misadventure on six Russian sailors

A jury at a Caernarfon inquest has returned a verdict of misadventure on six Russian sailors who died when the "Swanland" sank off the Gwynedd coast in November 2011. The ship was carrying limestone from Llanddulas to the Isle of Wight. Maritime union RMT repeated its calls for those responsible to be prosecuted and for the UK government to take action to prevent it happening again. The ship sank in 17 minutes and the crew did not muster after the alarm was sounded, reducing their chances of leaving in an orderly way. Leonid Safonov, 50, Mikhail Starchevoy, 60, Oleg Andriets, 49, Gennadiy Meshkov, 52, Yury Shmelev, 44, and Sergey Kharchenko, 51, all died. The inquest in Caernarfon heard that Mr Safonov's body was the only one recovered and a post-mortem examination showed he had drowned. On the second day of the inquest on May 20, 2014, the jury heard the ship's cook was not seen after the alarm, and may have never left his cabin. Tony Brown from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) told the jury the master could perhaps have given the order to evacuate earlier. An abandon ship drill was not conducted regularly. A solicitor for the ship's owners produced a signed statement from survivor Roman Savin saying drills were regularly held, although the statement did not refer to abandon ship drills being held during the period October to November when he served on the ship for a second time. However, the solicitor accepted that the crew had not mustered as they should have done in an emergency on the night the ship sank. Coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones urged the jury to avoid making recommendations because a Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report into the Swanland's sinking has already been carried out. The MAIB report found a number of safety issues. A lack of maintenance was likely to have been a "major contributing factor" to the ship's structural failure. The RMT will not let those responsible for tolerating and encouraging the lack of basic safety that led to the Swanland tragedy off the hook. Report with video: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-27490404

Inquest into death of six Russians to be held in May 2014

An inquest into the deaths of six Russians sailors who died when the "Swanland" sank off the coast of Gwynedd on Nov 27, 2011, will be held in May 2014. Just two of the eight-man crew survived when the hull of the "Swanland" snapped in a storm as it carried quarry stone from a jetty near Llanddulas. A major rescue operation was launched and two of the eight crew members, Roman Savin and Vitaliy Karpenko, were winched to safety by a rescue helicopter Team off the Llyn peninsula. The body of a third crew member was recovered from the water later, but the bodies of the five remaining crew were never found. An investigation found the ship suffered a catastrophic structural failure before it sank. A five-day hearing will take place in Caernarfon starting on May 19. A report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch found the ship sank in about 15 minutes. Underwater surveys of the wreckage found a significant structural failure had occurred close to the middle of the ship on both the port and starboard sides.

Call for manslaughter charges after release of MAIB report

After the release of the MAIB-report on June 12 calls were being made for corporate manslaughter charges to be brought against the owners of the "Swanland" that sank off the Llŷn coast, leaving six crewmen dead. The "Swanland" was heavily overloaded when it sank off Bardsey Island in rough seas while sailing from Colwyn Bay to the Isle of Wight after picking up 3,000 tons of limestone from a quarry jetty at Llanddulas. The ship had suffered a catastrophic structural failure and sank in around 17 minutes. Two of the crew, Roman Savin, 26, and Vitaliy Karpenko, 48, were rescued by an RAF helicopter. A third crewman, chief officer Leonid Safonov, 50, was later found dead during a search for survivors. The bodies of the other five crew members have not been found. The report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) released that high density cargo loaded in a single pile towards the centre of the hold had caused the ship to sink. The catastrophic failure of the hull was almost certainly due to compressive forces induced by a combination of the uneven distribution of the vessel’s limestone cargo and the rough to very rough seas experienced.