Two crew members of "Palladium" came back from Busan to Nakhodka

Today, the oiler  and the second officer of the tanker "Palladium", the members of the Seafarers Union of Russia (SUR), have come back to Nakhodka from Busan. Other seafarers still  remain on board the tanker "Palladium", Nikolai Sukhanov, the Chairman of the SUR Far Eastern Territorial Organization (SUR FETO) told.

Recall that late in August the crew of the tanker  “Palladium” left South Korea without harbourmaster's ship clearance authorizing the departure.   The local coast guard caught the runaways in the Korea Strait and  towed the tanker back to the port of Busan. This rash actions were preceded by a four-month stay at the port, during which ship repair work was performed on board, for which the shipowner had not paid. For this reason, the South Korean court detained the “Palladium” till the payment of  the debts for the ship repair work. In addition, the employer had a penalty for pollution of the port area in debt. The total amount of the debt amounted to $200,000.

After the South Korean authorities returned the “escaped” ship to the port, the police detained the Master, the AB and the oiler, as well as the shipowner - the chief executive officer of  “Daltrans”, and took them into custody.

As Nikolai Sukhanov had previously told, after the detention, all the crew members of the tanker were questioned for about one and a half months, eventually two seafarers were allowed to leave Busan, and the first court hearing  on this case was scheduled for October, 17.

“Roman Bykov, the Consul General of Russia in South Korea, helped to obtain all the necessary immigration documents and bought tickets for the two seafarers,” added the leader of the SUR FETO. “Busan’s port authorities allowed their repatriation without replacement.” The remaining nine crew members will be able to leave the ship only after the arrival of a change crew”.

It remains to add that  there is necessary food and potable water supply on board the "Palladium", the power is supplied from the shore.