North Sea Ship Collision 'Human Error'

Human error may have caused a cargo ship to collide with another vessel and sink off the Dutch Coast, killing at least five crew members, its Greek manager has reportedly said.

The 485ft (148m) Baltic Ace collided with the 440ft (134m) container ship Corvus J near busy shipping lanes in the North Sea, some 40 miles off the coast of the southern Netherlands.

Baltic Ace, which was heading from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge to Kotka in Finland with a crew of 24, sank shortly after the collision.

It was carrying more than 1,400 new cars, most of them Mitsubishis from Japan and Thailand, said Panagiootis Kakoliris, operations manager at Stamco Ship Management Co Ltd.

The collision occurred in one of the North Sea's busiest shipping lanes

Corvus J was on its way from Grangemouth in Scotland to Antwerp, Belgium, and was also damaged but assisted in the search for the missing crew of the sunken ship immediately afterwards.

"We can confirm that four bodies have been found, along with 13 people rescued alive," said coastguard spokesman Marcel Oldenburger.

A major air and sea rescue operation involving several helicopters, planes and two navy patrol ships resumed on Thursday and recovered another body from the waters, bringing the confirmed death toll to five..

The Dutch coastguard said it had given up any real hope of recovering any more survivors. Six people are still missing.

"Given the water temperature and the amount of time that's passed, we don't have any hope for more survivors, said coastguard spokesman Peter Westenberg.

A Royal Dutch navy ship involved in the rescue operation

It is thought some of the crew  - from Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine and the Philippines - may have gone down with the stricken vessel.

Earlier, rescuers pulled four bodies from the sea, before suspending the search overnight.

Some 13 crew members were also rescued from the Baltic Ace despite strong winds and waves of up to 9.8ft (3m) hampering the operation.

Four were flown to a hospital in Rotterdam, seven taken by rescue helicopter to a hospital in Belgium and two were being treated on board a ship that found them.

Mr Oldenburger said they were "all in shock" and suffering from hypothermia, but their lives were not in danger.

Eleven crew members on board the Baltic Ace were Polish, according to Janusz Wolosz, second secretary at the Polish Embassy in The Hague.

Four Poles including the captain had been taken to hospital in Belgium, another to Rotterdam, and the sixth was being treated on a rescue ship, he said, adding that five were still missing.

The foreign ministry in Sofia said one Bulgarian national had been aboard the Baltic Ace but was among the 13 rescued sailors and was in good health.

The Philippines and Ukrainian embassies could not say how many of their nationals had been aboard.

Dutch authorities have launched a probe to determine the cause of the collision.

The shipping lane where the accident happened is one of the busiest in the North Sea and an important passing point for ships sailing into Rotterdam port, Europe's largest and the fifth-largest in the world.

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