In March 2024, Russian media and Telegram channels reported that the ship that collided with a bridge in Maryland was led by a Ukrainian citizen. We have checked whether this information is correct.
On the night of March 26, near the American city of Baltimore, the Dali container ship lost control and crashed into the supports of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which led to the collapse of the main spans of the structure. There were several cars in the water, died at least two workers were repairing the roadway on the bridge at the time of the collision, and four of their colleagues were missing and presumably also drowned. The moment the bridge collapsed was caught on video, this footage distributed largest world Media.
On the same day, information began to be spread in the Russian-language segment of the Internet that the captain of the ship at the time of the disaster was a citizen of Ukraine. Wrote about this Lenta.ru, "Russian newspaper", "Gazeta.ru» And "Vesti.ru». The news aroused great interest among readers on Telegram, where it was reported on in the channels “Live broadcast"(1.4 million views at the time of writing this analysis), "Operation Z: military correspondents of the Russian spring» (614,000), Colonelcassad (437,000), "Dmitry Nicotin"(419,000), "Ne.Sugar"(324,000), "Russia now"(300,000), etc.
Container ship Dali collided from one of the pillars of the Francis Scott Key Bridge around 01:30 local time. When the ship lost control, the crew issued a distress signal, allowing authorities to block the entrance to the bridge and avoid more casualties, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said. Container ship manages Singapore company Synergy Group, but at that time it was chartered by the Danish shipping giant Maersk to transport goods to Sri Lanka.
Proof that Captain Dali is Ukrainian is allegedly a screenshot of his card on the website balticshipping.com. This is a vacancy database that is actively used by shipowners and sailors from different countries.
How stated in viral news, the website “lists all members of the ship’s crew” and, in particular, “it states that a 52-year-old Ukrainian with Ukrainian citizenship signed a fixed-term contract from February 19, 2024 until April 30.”
However, if you open page Dali on balticshipping.com, you can only see the profile of the person from the top of the screenshot, an Indian citizen. As stated on the other tab, he worked as a driver on this container ship in 2017-2018.
In other words, the site does not indicate the current crew of the ship, but those sailors who are currently looking for work and have mentioned Dali in their professional biography. Where then did the information come from that the captain of the container ship at the time of its collision with the bridge was a Ukrainian?
The fact is that as of March 26, two sailors were actually listed in the section of the website dedicated to this ship. Relevant screenshots saved by BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh and his colleagues from Associated Press.
One of these people is a 52-year-old Ukrainian citizen whose name is listed as Se*** ****. However, information about his short-term contract with the owners of Dali from February 19 to April 30, 2024 is incorrect: the Ukrainian captain’s last contract ended on the first date, and from May 1 he is again available for hire. As can be seen from another tab, the Ukrainian last worked on the container ship that crashed into the bridge in March-July 2016.
“Verified” found a person with the same data on social networks - his name is Sergey Yatsenko. IN profile The man’s Facebook page states that he was born in Kherson, graduated from the Odessa Maritime Academy and works as a captain. Yatsenko also has an inactive closed page on VKontakte, where numerous offensive comments were left following reports of his involvement in the bridge collapse.
Soon after a screenshot from balticshipping.com was spread across social networks and the media, the man deleted his vacancy from this site. Today your services are on the resource offer There are almost 400 Ukrainian captains, but his profile is not there.
As for the actual Dali crew at the time of the ship's collision with the bridge, how indicated on the website of the company that owns the ship, it consisted of 22 Indian citizens. Also representatives of Synergy Group reportedthat on the night of March 26, the ship was operated by two pilots - a licensed specialist and his student, both US citizens. In accordance with local law, every foreign ship in US territorial waters must have on board a US-licensed pilot who takes charge of navigation, that is, gives orders about the speed and direction of the ship.
Thus, the information about the Ukrainian captain of the Dali container ship does not correspond to reality - the specialist, whose photograph has spread on the Internet, last worked on this ship in 2016. At the same time, there is no reason to assert that the error in viral publications was intentional. The sailor's profile was indeed listed on the vessel's profile website, but many Internet users misinterpreted the information presented there.
Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons
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