Bulk ship-Fish boat 'hit and run'

Captains

This is a sad story about a bulk carrier involved in a 'hit and run' accident in the English Channel. According to the UK MAIB report released this week, both the carrier's master and the officer of the watch were aware of the collision, but failed to stop, failed to make any attempt to confirm if the fishing vessel they hit and her crew was safe, and failed to report the incident.

RADM W

16 September 2010 Last updated at 12:37 ET

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Ship's master criticised for Teignmouth fishing death

The "lookout" system on the crabber Etoile des Ondes was also criticised in the MAIB report

The master of a bulk carrier involved in a collision in which a Devon fisherman drowned has been criticised.

Chris Wadsworth, 21, died when the Weymouth-registered Etoile des Ondes was hit by the Alam Pintar in 2009.

A Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report said the carrier's master failed to report the collision and records were falsified or destroyed.

The crabber, which sailed out of Teignmouth, was fishing in the English Channel when it was hit.

'Inexperienced officer'

Three crew members of the Weymouth-registered crabber were rescued, but Mr Wadsworth's body was never found.

The MAIB report said when the collision happened on 20 December 2009 about 15 miles north of the Cherbourg peninsula, the bridge of the Singapore-registered Alam Pintar was manned by an inexperienced officer and an unqualified deck cadet.