The Rhodanus ship ran aground in the largest natural reserve in France, at Bonifacio in Corsica - PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP

  • Two sailors from the Rhodanus , the "ghost" freighter that ran aground in Corsica, were sentenced to six months suspended prison sentence.
  • The shift supervisor and the captain were sleeping when the freighter ran aground in an island nature reserve.

The shift manager had fallen asleep at the helm and his cargo ship, like a "ghost ship", had run aground in a nature reserve in Corsica. The sailor and the captain of the Rhodanus were given a six-month suspended prison sentence on Friday. Neither of the two Russians, also fined up to 3,000 euros, was present at the hearing in the Marseille court.

“I sat on the sofa, made a coffee and fell asleep. The sound of the shock woke me up, ”the 44-year-old shift manager told investigators after the accident in October. Following the prosecutor's requisitions in this case which caused neither injury nor pollution, the maritime court also prohibited these two Russian sailors from sailing for three years in French waters.

Loaded in Italy with steel coils, the freighter set sail in October for Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône) via the Bouches de Bonifacio, the 11 km wide strait between Sardinia (Italy) and Corsica.

Aid refused by captain

At around 2:30 a.m., the French and Italian maritime authorities were concerned to see this building, 90 meters long and 12 meters wide, taking an unusual trajectory, in the middle of a protected natural area. For fifty minutes, the authorities tried to reach the ship by radio, to no avail: the shift supervisor, recruited with the only maritime experience that of "pusher-tug" at the port of Saint Petersburg, fell asleep at the helm.

A Puma helicopter takes off but fails to prevent the freighter from running aground on the Corsican coast, its bow resting on a rock. Rescue was on the spot shortly after the impact, but for more than two hours, the captain of the boat refused any help and tried to free his vessel himself. "For this kind of ships, the company's instructions take precedence over those of the civil authorities," deplored the president of the court, Florent Pascal.

Prosecutor Franck Lagier has shelled a series of “failures and negligence” on board this boat flying the “flag of convenience of Antigua and Barbuda”, which split at night like a “ghost ship without a commander”.

The watchman had disconnected the “dead man” device, an alarm that went off in the event of prolonged inactivity, because his noise disturbed him and the captain had not set an alarm to help the passage of the mouths. Bonifacio, a delicate sector. "I am not a weak captain, I am very hard with my crew, but I cannot be behind everyone," defended the captain during the investigation.

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