Singapore Jails Captain for Lying About Fatal Incident on Gas Tanker

Singapore anchorage — The death occurred while the vessel was in the anchorage off Singapore (iStock)

A court in Singapore sentenced the captain of a gas tanker to 14 months in jail after he admitted to lying about a fatal incident aboard the vessel in 2024. He is the second officer from the ship sentenced to jail for the incident that took the life of a seafarer ordered to clean a gas tank, while the case against the chief officer of the vessel is still pending in the courts.

The charges stem from an incident aboard the chemical tanker GT Win (15,000 dwt), which had arrived in Singapore on May 11, 2024, transporting a cargo of naphtha. The vessel, which is registered in Vietnam, offloaded its cargo and moved into the anchorage.

While it was in the anchorage, the chief officer, Dao Tien Manh, ordered three crewmembers to clean the emptied tanks, although according to prosecutors, he had failed to check the oxygen levels and make the necessary safety checks. Further, he instructed the pump master, Le Thanh Dung, to make modifications to the mask of the breathing apparatus. He connected the mask’s hose to an air bottle on deck, which prosecutors called “impractical,” noting space constraints at a staircase, according to the Straits Times’ report.

One of the seafarers, Hoang Van Chau, became unconscious while working in one of the tanks. The crew attempted CPR and requested emergency medical assistance from shore. Chau was pronounced deceased at a local hospital, dying from exposure to volatile hydrocarbons, the newspaper reports.

The captain of the vessel, a Vietnamese national named Nguyen Duc Nghi, age 50, concealed the facts of the incident from the Singapore Police Force and the Maritime Port Authority of Singapore. After the fatality, the captain reportedly spoke with the vessel’s pump master, who showed him the altered breathing mask.

In the court filings, they alleged the master threw the mask overboard. Further, he told the crew that they should tell the investigators that the seaman had been found unconscious in the tank and lie about the details. He said that was the only way the family would get the insurance money.

Nghi was taken into custody the day after the incident. Crewmembers then told the investigators the truth about how the death happened. According to the report, when the police confronted the captain, he admitted to the lie and instructed the crew to lie. His actions were also equated to insurance fraud.

The captain pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing justice. He will be serving 14 months. The pump master pleaded guilty in July to one count of “performing rash acts that endangered lives.” He was sentenced to three months and two weeks in jail.

The chief officer of the GT Win is also facing charges for the incident. They allege he was the one who instructed the crewmembers to enter the tanks to clean them, knowing the air had not been checked and the safety procedures were not followed. His role was to check the oxygen levels. Further, the court papers allege that the chief officer, Dao Tien Manh, age 32, had instructed the pump master to make the alterations to the mask.