Ferry crew often breached safety rules, court told

Commodore Goodwill had been operated by Condor Ferries and has been taken over by DFDS

It was "common practice" for senior staff to breach maritime safety standards onboard a Condor vessel which collided with a fishing trawler, killing all three crew, a court has been told.

Lewis Carr and Artur Sevash-Zade deny three counts of gross negligence manslaughter following the deaths of skipper Michael Michieli and his L'Ecume II crew members Larry Simyunn and Jervis Baligat in December 2022.

Jersey's Royal court previously heard Mr Carr, the second officer with control of the Commodore Goodwill, sent Mr Sevash-Zade, the lookout, to go and have breakfast about five minutes after clocking onto his shift.

It left the bridge staffed only by Mr Carr.

'A mandated principle'

Maritime witness Captain Brian McJury said sending Mr Sevash-Zade away from the bridge was a breach of the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW).

"It's a mandated principle that they must be on the bridge," he said, adding a minimum of two crew was required at all times.

The court was told officers in charge would often send the lookout to undertake tasks such as fire patrols and to wake up the crew with a knock at their cabin doors.

The defence asked Capt McJury if it would be right for a lookout to refuse orders and he said "they may voice their concern about it, but I wouldn't expect him to refuse to do it if he's given a direct order".

He added a lookout removing the bridge wings, a task the court heard Mr Sevash-Zade had been doing just before the collision, "would be less distracting" as the lookout would still have view of the sea out ahead.

Answering questions from the defence, Capt McJury said those in the role of a lookout knew what was "expected of them" adding it was down to the crew, not just the lookout, to keep a watch.

Capt McJury said a lookout was expected to have knowledge of the collision regulations but not as high an understanding as the officer of the watch.

The court previously heard Mr Sevash-Zade had the same STCW qualifications as Mr Carr, but had not worked officially as an officer onboard a vessel.

The jury also previously heard that at 05:34 GMT, one minute before the crash, L'Ecume II altered to port when approaching the Goodwill.

Capt McJury said that at this point, the crew on board L'Ecume II would not have been considering collision regulations but instead their "survival".

He said: "I doubt regulations would've been in anybody's mind."

The trial continues.