Andrew Fraser and Joe Kelly
THE captain of the Chinese coal carrier that ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef last week has been granted bail by a Queensland court and is allowed to leave Australia.
Jichang Wang, 47, master of the Shen Neng 1, gave an undertaking to return for trial on charges over the grounding of the ship, which caused major damage to reef.
First mate Xuegang Wang, 44, has been granted bail on the condition that he live on the carrier until a more permanent bail arrangement is reached.
The more permanent arrangement will involve “a substantial sum of money” for bail and an undertaking that he will return to face the charges.
The pair faced Gladstone Magistrates Court today with the help of an interpreter. Neither speaks English.
The charges will next be heard for mention on June 9, at which a date for the trial will be set.
Both men are professional seamen, and both are married with a single daughter each in China.
The captain was dressed in a suit jacket and striped shirt, while Mr Xue wore a polo-necked shirt. Both appeared calm.
The ship's master has been charged with liability for a vessel which caused damage to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the chief officer-on-watch with being the person in charge of a vessel that caused damage to the park.
Meanwhile a preliminary report into the grounding by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau was released in Canberra this morning.
ATSB chief executive Martin Dolan said preliminary investigations show a variety of factors contributed to the mishap.
That allegedly included the failure to program a proposed course change into the ship's GPS navigation system and that a crewmember on watch had only slept for a little over two and a half hours in the previous day and a half.
Mr Dolan said the matter would be investigated further.
“`We need to have a look at bridge resource management ... what was going on here in terms of fatigue and distraction and everything else and will come to the best view as to what was going on”.
Mr Dolan said there was no evidence to suggest the crew on watch were asleep.
The Australian
