UK fishing trawler caught fire and sank just months after Northern Irish inspectors deemed it unfit to sail

The Piedras, a British-flagged fishing trawler, was a regular visitor to Londonderry and it was there in October 2021 that Maritime and Coastguard inspectors detained it.

Then on June 1, 2022, the ship catastrophically flooded, caught fire, and sank to the seabed.

All 11 crew were saved.

Image of the Piedras sinking and below (stretched to fit) is the image of it resting on the seabed

The incident is listed as a "very serious marine casualty" one by the UK Maritime Accident Investigation Branch, which has today issued a report into the sinking.

The 116-ft vessel had been built in 1976. It was led by Spaniards, and crewed by people from as far apart as Ghana, Morocco and Peru (the working language onboard was Galician Spanish).

The ship had set out from south-west Ireland at 7pm on May 29, and spent the next two days at sea in the Shannon shipping forecast area.

At 6am on June 1, an alarm began to sound and when the skipper investigated he found the engine room beginning to flood.

The Piedras on fire and sinking

He Whatsapped another nearby ship called Armavan Uno at 6.14am to say there was a flood, but it was "containable".

But the water kept coming and was engulfing the engine, so he telephoned that ship and said he may need help.

The Armavan Uno began to head towards the Piedras.

Things only worsened in the minutes and hours that followed, as the pump the crew was using overheated and had to be shut down, forcing them to use a crane to retrieve another heavy pump from the ship's fish processing room.

The effect of the second pump was "negligible", and with water now flooding the main deck the crew put on lifejackets and prepared to abandon ship - though the skipper and chief engineeer stayed to try and save the vessel.

The crew released a liferaft... but it failed to inflate properly. Having little choice, they climbed in anyway.

The skipper and chief engineer also ultimately abandoned ship – minus lifejackets.

By 9.40am an Irish air force plane had arrived, followed later by a Coast Guard helicopter.

At 9.49am Armaven Uno reported that all 11 crew members had been recovered and were onboard.

Meanwhile, the Piedras was now on fire, and by 12.34pm it had sunk.

The report into the accident said the cause of the flooding was uncertain.

The vessel had a chequered recent safety history.

The report says it was "common" for the ship to sail into Londonderry, adding: "On October 5, 2021, the MCA conducted Piedras’s third annual survey, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland; the MCA inspectors recorded 17 deficiencies and the vessel was detained.

"On 6 and 7 October 2021, the MCA revisited Piedras and noted that all the deficiencies had been rectified.

"Previous surveys had recorded that watertight doors and vents did not operate properly or were found tied open."

The report also said the life raft failed to inflate properly possibly "it had not been serviced correctly for many years preceding the accident", possibly as far back as 2008.

In addition "the ability of the crew to communicate in English was limited and it is highly likely they would have been unable to make use of the Fishermen’s Safety Guide or understand the vessel’s risk assessments", added to which "it is highly likely that the lack of flood response training meant the crew were ill-prepared to deal with this emergency".