Minister meets North Sea ship crash rescue crews

Transport Minister Mike Kane has praised the "great bravery" of people who helped save sailors from the two ships involved in last week's North Sea crash.

On a visit to Grimsby, the minister met crews from wind farm workboats, and volunteers from HM Coastguard, who were involved in the rescue operation.

The Portuguese-flagged Solong and the US-registered tanker Stena Immaculate crashed off the East Yorkshire coast on 10 March, with both vessels bursting into flames.

Rescuers saved 36 crew off both ships, with one sailor from the Solong - Filipino national Mark Angelo Pernia, 38 - missing presumed dead.

Kane said he had heard "some very poignant stories".

"Those crews that were in distress - who had abandoned ship, being picked up by workboats on the wind farms - and the condition they were in," he said. "Great bravery, great dedication and also just great professionalism."

The captain of the Solong, Vladimir Motin, 59, of Primorsky in St Petersburg, Russia, has been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

He has been remanded in custody and will appear before the Central Criminal Court in London on 14 April.

Tiny plastic pellets, known as nurdles, have washed up along the east coast and have likely come from the incident, HM Coastguard has said.

Kane said the pollution situation was being monitored.

"We still have two vessels out there in our ocean that still contain material," he said.

"So while we're in the recovery phase, we have salvage teams now based here, insurance teams.

"They're developing the plan, assessing the ships as they currently stand and bringing them into shore and disposing of what we can safely."

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