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Amid oil slick, CID probes New Diamond’s safety procedures
As the crippled super tanker MT New Diamond began to discharge oil in the sea off the southeast coast of Sri Lanka, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has launched a probe to ascertain if the vessel’s crew ignored safety procedures.
Colombo’s Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne on Friday ordered the ship owner’s local agent to provide data records from the tanker to the CID.
The magistrate also gave permission to the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) to collect samples from the oil slick near the ship to determine what type of oil it was and if it indeed came from the ship. In Colombo, the authorities were assessing the environmental damage that may have been caused by the oil spill.
The magistrate told the Navy to help in the sample collection. The court also ordered the Coast Guard and the Merchant Shipping Secretariat to assist in the investigations.
MEPA Chairperson Dharshani Lahandapura told the SundayTimes her agency requested the court’s permission to collect samples of all oil substances in the ship. This includes engine fuels and the ship’s cargo of crude oil. The request was granted.
CID detectives are due to interview the ship’s crew members in the coming days. The probe will cover the safety procedures that should have been followed and the crew’s response to the situation.
The surviving 22 crew members, comprising 17 Filipinos and five Greeks including the captain, are currently at an isolation centre set up at a hotel in Galle. One Filipino crew member died in the initial explosion inside the boiler room of the ship.
The Attorney General’s advice has been sought regarding legal action against the ship’s captain and crew, Merchant Shipping Director General A.W. Seneviratne said. “The jurisdiction of the Merchant Shipping Secretariat extends up to 12 nautical miles under the Merchant Shipping Act and the power to arrest has to be granted by a court in Sri Lanka,” he explained.
As of yesterday afternoon, the tanker was situated 45 nautical miles east of Batticaloa after the fire onboard was completely doused. Sri Lanka Navy divers conducted an operation yesterday to assess damage to the ship’s hull below the waterline. They found that the internal pipe system connecting two sea water inlets on either side of the super tanker had been damaged, Navy Spokesman Indika de Silva said.
The navy divers took steps to close off the inlets. It was observed that fuel oil had been leaking from the ship via the damaged pipe system connected to the sea water inlet on the starboard (right) side of the vessel, Capt de Silva said.
With firefighting operations aboard the vessel coming to an end, the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) has stopped air surveillance of the area, SLAF Spokesman Dushantha Wijesinghe said. “The air force submitted the necessary information and patch area footage of the oil slicks spotted earlier this week to MEPA and the Navy,” he said.
Group Capt. Wijesinghe noted, however, that the SLAF was on standby and ready to assist the Navy again. Two helicopters — an MI7 and a Bell 212 — and another aircraft, which were used in the opertions have been on standby since Friday. He noted that a Y-12 and a B 200 Beech King were also on standby if assistance was required.
He said the SLAF would present a report on its costs, including ground crew costs and flying hours, tomorrow to MEPA which would present it to the AG.