Jurors in a manslaughter trial have been shown footage of a collision between two vessels in the North Sea off the East Yorkshire coast last year
Mark W Page Nostalgia Editor (Regionals), Carrington Walker GAU Writer, Emily Pennink PA and Mark Page
12:34, 15 Jan 2026
Jurors have been shown harrowing footage capturing the moment a container ship ploughed into an oil tanker off the East Yorkshire coastline. The catastrophic North Sea collision last year saw both vessels consumed by massive fireballs and claimed the life of a crew member.
Vladimir Motin, a 59 year old Russian national, was the sole officer on watch when his ship, the Solong, struck the anchored Stena Immaculate near the Humber Estuary on March 10, last year, reports Hull Live.
Filipino crew member Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, who had been working at the bow of the Solong, died as flames engulfed both ships, though his remains have never been recovered, the court was told.
During Wednesday's proceedings (January 14) in Motin's manslaughter trial over his colleague's death, Detective Constable Richard Bayley presented jurors with a series of audio and video recordings from the incident. The evidence included footage showing the precise moment, at 9.47am, when the Solong crashed into the Stena Immaculate.
The Stena Immaculate had been transporting large quantities of aviation fuel, which spilled out following the impact, triggering an enormous inferno that engulfed both vessels. Audio recordings captured Motin's voice approximately 60 seconds after the collision, calling out: "Stena Immaculate, Stena Immaculate."
Audio captured from the Stena Immaculate recorded a deafening bang, followed by panicked American crew members yelling: "Holy s**t... what just hit us... a container ship... this is no drill, this is no drill, fire fire fire, we have had a collision."
Multiple alarm bells rang out in the background whilst the vessel's foghorn blared repeatedly.
Separate video footage from the Solong captured a male voice pleading: "Lord help us. Lord help us. Lord help us."
Crew members aboard the Solong attempted to locate Mr Pernia but were prevented from reaching certain areas of the vessel due to the blaze.
Captain Motin issued the command to evacuate, with the surviving crew escaping via lifeboat. The court had previously heard prosecutor Tom Little KC tell jurors that Mr Pernia's death was "entirely avoidable".
Defence barrister James Leonard KC, representing Motin, confirmed his client acknowledged he was the sole officer navigating the Solong from the bridge at 8am on the day of the incident. He had detected the Stena Immaculate on radar at a distance of at least nine nautical miles and recognised it was positioned directly in the Solong's trajectory.
The accused's vessel had been operating on autopilot at roughly 16 knots in the moments leading up to the collision. Mr Leonard stated that when the Solong closed to around three nautical miles, Motin had direct visual confirmation of the Stena Immaculate.
"The defendant will say that when he was approximately one nautical mile away from the Stena Immaculate's position, he tried to take the Solong out of autopilot so as to attempt to change course to starboard manually, passing to the Stena Immaculate's stern," he informed the jury.
"There is no dispute that had he changed course in the way he intended, there would have been no collision. That attempt was not successful and the Solong did not change course at all."
The barrister asked jurors to weigh up whether it was "reasonable" to delay until the Solong was just one nautical mile from the Stena Immaculate before trying to steer clear, and questioned why he held off until that moment. The court heard the vessel, crewed by 14 people, was transporting predominantly alcoholic spirits alongside some hazardous materials, including empty but contaminated sodium cyanide containers.
The Stena Immaculate, crewed by 23, measured 183.2 metres in length and was carrying more than 220,000 barrels of JetA1 high-grade aviation fuel from Greece to Britain.
Earlier in proceedings, Mr Justice Baker dismissed a juror after observing him "distracting himself and not focusing himself on the evidence in the trial" on Wednesday morning.
Following the lunch break, the judge told the remaining 11 jurors that the individual had "demonstrated an unfitness to serve on the jury".
Motin, from Primorsky, St Petersburg, has denied manslaughter and the Old Bailey trial continues.