The captain of the Pitanxo presents a report to the court to prove that the stoppage of the engine was the cause of the shipwreck

The document of the expert contracted by Padín sees his story as "coherent" with the data on the location of the ship

VIGO, 16 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The defense of the captain of the Galician fishing vessel 'Villa de Pitanxo', Juan Padín, has presented a report to the National Court to try to prove that the stoppage of the engine was the cause of the shipwreck, which sank on February 15 at 450 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland (Canada), killing 21 of the 24 sailors on board.

With "objective data", the document intends to analyze the different versions that the survivors of the tragedy have told. On the one hand, Padín and her nephew, Eduardo Rial, defend that during the hauling maneuver of the rig the engine stopped, leaving the boat exposed to the waves, which is why water began to enter until she sank.

However, the third survivor, Samuel Kwesi, at first declared the same thing as Padín and Rial, but later changed his version (assuring that he had been forced by the captain and the shipowner to tell the three of them the same story) and indicated that the rig got caught in the bottom of the sea and, as a result of the skipper continuing to force the machine to release the clutter, the boat heeled over and caused the machine to stop, the ingress of water and the shipwreck.

For his analysis, the expert uses the location data in real time that the 'Villa de Pitanxo' sent to land reporting its situation and the speed at which it was navigating.

Thus, in his conclusions, the professional assures that between 03:48 and 03:50 in the morning of February 15, the ship was sailing at an average speed of 3.4 knots, "usual for hauling operations and incompatible with with a smear of the rig on the bottom".

In the interval between 03:50 and 04:22 hours, the average speed became 2.06 knots and the course changed from North-Northeast to East-Northeast, "consistent with the ship running out of propulsion and drift".

For its part, the report defends that the speed of 4.4 knots that reflects the last position of the blue box "does not correspond to the speed at which the ship actually navigated between the last two positions, it is materially impossible, but rather That speed is punctual to the second in which the position is reported and the only explanation is that it corresponds to the descent of a wave and the drag of the strong wind and waves".

"The result of the calculations obtained allows us to conclude that what was declared by the skipper of the fishing boat, and by the two surviving sailors in the Sea Protest formalized before the Consulate of Spain in San Juan de Newfoundland on February 19 (later Kwesi changed his version ), is coherent and consistent with the data from the AIS, the blue box and the meteorological conditions," he stated in his conclusions.

In the report, to which Europa Press has had access, it is also stated that the thesis of the Civil Guard report, based on Kwesi's statement in Spain, is "incompatible" with the data on the location of the ship, "since if there had been a muddying that slowed the advance of the ship causing a strong list and its sinking, the ship could never be moving at any speed (neither drift nor punctual due to the effect of the thrust of the waves)".

María José de Pazo, spokesperson for the families of the deceased, has spoken precisely about this report, who has indicated that what they have always requested is that the cause be investigated "and that everything possible be clarified" about what happened in the early morning of past February 15.

Despite not wanting to assess the report, in statements to the media De Pazo stressed that 10 months after the tragedy "it has become clear who was never afraid of the truth coming out", claimed that the relatives have always requested that the facts be investigated.

All of this when there are two months to go until one year has passed since the shipwreck of the 'Villa de Pitanxo', which sank 450 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland (Canada), killing 21 of the 24 sailors who worked on it.