Tag Archives: owner John Connell
‘Owner should have ensured fishing boat was seaworthy’
The owner of a small fishing boat, whose sinking led to the death of a father-of-three, should have ensured it was in a seaworthy condition. That was the view of Procurator Fiscal David Glancy yesterday as the final submissions were made in a Fatal Accident Inquiry into the death of 40-year-old Scott MacAlister. Mr MacAlister was the skipper and sole occupant of Speedwell, owned by Luing ferry captain John Connell, which sank off Easdale Island on April 25, 2013. The inquiry earlier heard that the boat had a leaky hatch. He stated that another precaution would have been for the owner of Speedwell to ensure there were life jackets on board the vessel. >click to read<09:54
Owner refused to let wreck be raised because grieving family didn’t ask nicely, FAI hears
The owner of a fishing boat that sank off Easdale with the loss of its skipper Scott MacAlister, refused to allow the wreck to be raised because the grieving father had not asked him ‘nicely’, a fatal accident inquiry heard on Friday. ‘The way he spoke to me, I was not very keen to help him in any way’, John Connell, 59, told Oban Sheriff Court. ‘If I had been asked politely, nicely and decently, permission would have been granted straight away.’ Mr Connell agreed Mr MacAlister was ‘the author of his own misfortune’, in the fifth day of the inquiry into the sinking of the Speedwell on April 25, 2013, adding he would not have let the boat sail if he knew it was unsafe. >click to read<21:09
