On: 15 February 2022 6:30 UTC, twelve crew members fishing village Pitanxo They had already spent at least two hours on a raft cracked on the ground, with the water at two degrees Celsius and under the influence of -17 degrees.. Only two of them, the captain and his nephew – Juan Enrique Padín and Eduardo Rial – were wearing survival suits; only one, the pattern, was completely dry. At 6:30 UTC there were already bodies on board the inflatable boat as sailors such as Samuel Koufie and William Arévalo fought to survive. William couldn’t.
At 6:30 a.m., when the radio beacon warned of the disaster, the ship owner responded to a call from the National Rescue Coordination Center (CNCS). It was stated that there were 22 people on the ship. And he lied because there were 24 people involved in the fatal capsizing of the fishing boat. The ship owner, Pesquerías Nores Marín, had sent a fake message to the Vigo Maritime Captain’s Office. According to this document, the ship did not have enough lifesaving equipment for everyone. While the company has already been indicted by the National Court, investigating judge Ismael Moreno stated the following: During the investigation, two of its top executives were prosecuted: general manager José Antonio Nores Rodríguez and Fleet president José Antonio Nores Ortega.
Like Juan Enrique Padín, Pesquerías Nores was already under investigation for the alleged commission of four crimes: 21 murders due to serious recklessness, violation of workers’ rights, document forgery and cover-up. Although the families of the victims, whose twelve bodies were never found, demanded that Eduardo Rial file a criminal complaint, the court has not accepted this request so far.
Unlike the captain who was rescued with “dry tennis shoes”. –as the ship crew warned Menduiña Iki Beach Towards FARO, Rial had to jump into the water to board the raft. Koufie, the third survivor, argued both before the Civil Guard and in court that Padín had not given the order to abandon ship and therefore had not given the order to wear thermal clothing. The sailors on the ship who rescued them from the shipowner Moradina also insisted that no distress call was sent from Pitanxo’s command bridge. “He told us seven versions of what happened in half an hour.”
The same sources assured the judge that: Padín, along with Samuel Koufie and Eduardo Rial, asked them for “pen and paper” to coordinate the story to be given to the authorities. So they were able to chart a sequence of events: the engine stopping for no apparent reason, the Pitanxo docking, the entire crew being called to the bridge in thermal suits.
Contributed by Koufie and supported by sailors Menduiña Iki Beach and – indicatively – it is completely contrary to the expert evidence: the engine did not fail, it was Padín’s maneuver that caused the fatal heel of the boat, and this occurred due to the loss of stability due to an intense flow of water and mud. the rig overwhelmed the Wärtsilä propulsion system. According to the Ghanaian sailor, He also came under pressure from the ship-owning company to back up the boss’s story and eliminate any shadow of liability for the shipwreck.. The Galician fishery has never experienced a sinking with this many victims (21) since the incident. marble In 1978.
Pesquerías Nores, in addition to providing false information for the shipment of the ship, Pitanxo When she left Vigo, she would be the twenty-fifth crew member on board, with the intention of transferring her to the high seas (completed). The fishing boat’s rescue equipment list included only 22 vests.. Due to the reform of the freeboard deck, which added 16 tons of ballast to the keel, the ship was also not supposed to go to work in ice formation areas; He has done this many times since 2018. Additionally, despite evacuating a COVID-positive crew member, he did not quarantine him before heading to the fishing grounds; Seven of the bodies recovered from the shipwreck had high concentrations of coronavirus.
The extensive list of irregularities did not prevent the company from receiving public subsidies from different administrations, whether or not they ultimately had criminal consequences. The last one was dated July 13, and 225,000 euros were received as “State aid for diesel consumption for fishing vessels and trap owners for 2023”. It was direct aid without compensation. In summary, since the shipwreck of the Villa de Pitanxo, Pesquerías Nores Marín has received direct aid in the amount of 304,015.22 euros, as recorded in the National Promotion System of Subsidies and Public Aids of the Ministry of Finance.
Keys
1 Accusations related to the incident
Juan Padín and Pesquerías Nores are being investigated for allegedly committing four crimes: 21 murders resulting from gross negligence, violation of workers’ rights, document forgery and cover-up. Two Nores executives have now been added to the list of defendants.
2 Public assistance to shipowners
Since the shipwreck Villa de PitanxoPesquerías Nores received public subsidies of over 300,000 euros in February 2022.