Classification society Korean Register (KR) has clarified its position in relation into the ongoing investigation into the sinking of the Stellar Daisy VLOC.
A court in South Korea last month rejected a request for an arrest warrant of a KR surveyor. The Busan Coast Guard had questioned the quality of the class employee’s annual survey of the converted VLOC, something that was dismissed by the court.
A deepsea search is now underway in the South Atlantic to locate the Polaris Shipping vessel and to try and get its voyage data recorder at which point investigations are set to continue into the sinking, which led to the deaths of 22 crew in March 2017. The ship’s flag, the Marshall Islands, has yet to file its official accident investigation report.
The Busan Coast Guard had claimed Polaris installed a valve in the ship’s cargo space without the approval of class while a local thickness measurement company, not related to KR, was accused of forging documents. To date, one former Polaris employee has been arrested in the ongoing investigation.
