MMD Submitted Initial Report on Fishing Boat Collision

KOCHI:
As part of the statutory inquiry under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958, into the captioned marine casualty, the Mercantile Marine Department (MMD), Kochi has submitted an “Initial Report” to the Directorate General of Shipping on 14.06.2017. A copy of the same is also being provided to other concerned agencies, including the State Police Authorities, Kerala.
The ” Initial Report” was submitted with the limited scope to ascertain the location of the incident as accurate as possible and to establish the extent of involvement of suspected merchant ship(s) in the incident, collating the information available at this stage.
The causes and circumstances of the incident along with its contributing factors, violations of national / international maritime laws if any, professional lapses and human errors, extent of involvement of both the vessels in the incident and the recommendations to avoid recurrence of such unfortunate incidents in the future will be dealt with in detail, as deem fit, in subsequent “Final Report” to be submitted to the Central Government.
Based on the digital and physical evidence evolved during the Inquiry, the Inquiry team of this Department, has made the following prima facie conclusions on this unfortunate incident, strictly confining to the scope mentioned in the preceding paragraphs:-
The approximate position of the collision incident is at 10° 01.034’N, 075° 57.770’E, which is about 14.18 Nautical miles from the nearest land.
It leads to a reasoned conclusion that the Panama Flag Bulk Carrier, AMBER L, IMO No.9200354, is the merchant ship involved in the collision with the Indian Fishing Boat CARMEL MATHA at about 0223 hours on 11th June 2017 off the Kerala Coast.
At the time of incident, Capt. Georgiannakis Ioannis (Greek national, Passport No. AK0111592) was on the command of the vessel and Second Officer, Galanos Athanasios (Greek national, Passport No AN0246221) was keeping the navigational watch on the Bridge.  Zewana (Myanmar national, Passport No. MB556301) was the designated duty Able Seaman at the time of this incident.
Further, in order to ensure the smooth and expeditious conduct of the detailed Inquiry and also to protect the interest of the aggrieved in the incident, the Principal Officer, MMD, Kochi in exercise of powers under Sect 443(2) of the Indian Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 has ordered the DETENTION of AMBER L, IMO No.9200354, at Kochi until further orders.