The Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR) opened a criminal case in connection with the death of sailors as a result of a fire on the Kaltan fishing vessel off the coast of South Korea.
This was reported to Lente.ru by the press service of the Eastern Interregional Investigation Department for Transport of the TFR.
The investigation is underway under Article 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Violation of traffic safety rules and the operation of maritime transport, resulting in the death of two or more persons through negligence”).
The bodies of four crew members were found in the ship’s premises after the fire was extinguished and the ship was towed to the Korean port of Ulsan.
According to the investigation, on April 21, at about 02:00 local time, the navigational cabin and the residential complex of the vessel caught fire. At that time, Kaltan was in the open waters of the Sea of Japan at a distance of 20 nautical miles from Busan and 900 kilometers from Vladivostok. The fire engulfed a significant area of the vessel, on board of which there were 25 people, of whom 21 were rescued.
Investigators and criminologists inspected the office of the owner of “Kaltan”, seized the documentation. Information is also requested on the passage of the ship survey in the federal autonomous institution “Russian Maritime Register”. Witnesses are being interrogated.