No proceedings ruling over loss of Ievoli Sun

Citation

(2002), "No proceedings ruling over loss of Ievoli Sun", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 11 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2002.07311eab.001

No proceedings ruling over loss of Ievoli Sun

No proceedings ruling over loss of Ievoli Sun

French examining magistrate Dominique de Talance has decided not to initiate proceedings against any of the parties involved in the loss of the Ievoli Sun, the chemicals carrier which sank off the French Normandy coast on 31 October 2000.

Ms de Talance, who has already charged a number of people in connection with the sinking of the Erika in late 1999, gave no explanation for her decision, which was revealed by an unnamed French judicial source.

It is understood, however, that the absence of serious pollution was the principal reason for her decision not to take action against the master of the Ievoli Sun or her Italian owner, Marnavi of Naples.

The 1989-built Ievoli Sun was en route from Fawley in Britain to Berre in southern France with a cargo of 6,000 tonnes of chemicals when she got into difficulty after taking on water on 29 October.

Following the evacuation of her crew on the morning of 30 October, she was taken on tow to Cherbourg but never reached the port, slipping lower in the water until she finally sank shortly after 09.00 hrs on 31 October some 20km off Alderney in the Channel Islands and 35km off the French coast.

It is thought that part of her bunker and some of the 4,000 tonnes of styrene she was carrying were released into the sea during or after the sinking but more than 3,000 tonnes of styrene and 88m³ of fuel oil were recovered by the Dutch salvage operator, Smit Tak, in the course of a six-week salvage operation which was completed in early June last year.

A small amount of bunker oil, which the salvors were unable to reach, was abandoned aboard the vessel, however, while diesel oil and more than 2,000 tonnes of iso-propanol and ethyl methyl ketone, which were not considered to be a pollution risk, were released into the sea.

A provisional report into the casualty published by the French marine accident investigation bureau in November 2000 found that flooding of the forward part of the vessel, caused by an open hatch cover or chain wells which had not been watertight, was the most likely cause of the loss of the vessel.

(Andrew Spurrier, Lloyd's Casualty Week, Vol. 327 No. 10, 1 March 2002).