Captain jailed for North Sea gas platform collision

A ship’s captain has been jailed for a year in the UK after his vessel collided with a gas platform in the North Sea in August.

Zbigniew Krakowski, of Szczecin, Poland, was found guilty of being in control of a vessel with excess alcohol in his system and for violating a 500-metre safety zone around offshore oil and gas installations by the Lincoln Crown Court. The 2000-tonne Jork struck the unmanned Viking Echo Platform a glancing blow. The damaged vessel began to list and the crew abandoned ship. The Jork sank the next day. The Viking Echo, 40 miles off the Norfolk coast, remains out of operation, at a cost of 615,000 per month. The Jork was en-route to New Holland, Lincolnshire from Lubeck, Germany, when the crash happened. Judge John Milmo QC described the incident as a breathtaking series of events and said it was fortunate no-one died in the accident.

Read More