Military Officials Under Investigation For Part In Erika Spill
Three military officials working at the Brest maritime office in western France have been put under investigation over alleged failure to react to the sinking of the tanker Erika, judicial sources said. The officials were on duty at between December 11-12, when the Maltese-registered Erika broke up and sank. Admiral Yves Naquet-Radiguet, the maritime prefect for France's Atlantic coast, was not informed of the situation until the morning of December 12, when the tanker had already split in two. The magistrate in charge of the case, Dominique de Talance, has been investigating any shortcoming by maritime authorities between Erika's first distress call early in the afternoon of December 11 and the December 12 shipwreck.
Company Knew Tanker was Risk Before Erika Disaster
The four-month trial - the most complex of its kind in French history - may also turn into a trial of the globalized international shipping system. The aging and rusting ship, which split in two off off Britanny, on December 12, 1999, was Japanese-built, Italian-owned and controlled by two Liberian companies. The Erika was crewed by Indians, sailing under a Maltese flag, chartered by a shipping company registered in the Bahamas for a French oil company. The tribunal in Paris was told that the ship had already been identified as a potential risk. It was nonetheless allowed to leave Dunkirk in high seas, carrying a cargo of 20,000 tonnes of toxic heavy fuel oil. The ship foundered three days later.
