The expedition to Newfoundland will go down to the restaurants of Villa de Pitanxo and learn about the causes of the shipwreck that cost 21 sailors their lives in February 2022. With everything ready to leave for Canadian waters this week, the company awarded the mission – the Galician ACSM Shipping – announced yesterday that, if the Ministry of Transport did not seal the contract with hours, it would leave the port of Vigo, where they have been for days. tied up It was its manager, José Cubeiro, who raised his voice to fear the central government that on the same day that the deadline to formalize the agreement expired, no one would have contacted him. "The plan was to set sail this week, but we have not signed anything and time ends today [por ayer]," the person in charge of the ship, with a staff of 38 people on board, told ABC. "This is costing me a lot, about 35.000 or 40.000 euros a day, which I have to pay out of my own pocket," he lamented at the Ministry of Transport's delay. The complaint from the company selected to descend into Pitanxo, buried some thousand meters deep for fifteen months, adds to the slap on the wrist that the National Court gave the central government last week, which it accused of organizing this exit to behind the competent court. Through an official letter to which this newspaper had access, Judge Ismael Moreno, in charge of Central Court number 2, demanded that the ministry “urgently” bring “the documentation related to the contracting and awarding” of the descent that, he recalled, will date the court itself in coordination with the company. The selection of the experts who must accompany the expedition also depends on the court to guarantee, among other things, the chain of custody of the recordings and the evidence that can be obtained about the event, in the investigation phase for 21 alleged crimes of reckless homicide Related News standard No Galicia The Government organized the descent to the remains of the Pitanxo to the swords of the National Court Patricia Abet standard No Galicia The tender to go down to the Pitanxo is published: "What the families asked for was not a chimera" Patricia Abet For the At the moment, all the spotlights are still on the trading dock of the Olívic port, where the ship Ártabro is ready to leave “tomorrow if necessary”. “I know absolutely nothing. We should have everything signed by now, but things are as they are. We have no notification of anything and the ship is still in Vigo with terrible daily costs", lamented the head of the company, who puts on the table the daily payment in "payroll, technicians, equipment... it is not a joke". From ACSM, he also reveals that the company left other jobs to take charge of the descent to Pitanxo, tendered for 3 million euros through an emergency procedure that was published last March after months of waiting and fighting by the families of the victims. In stoppage time, Cubeiro made it clear that the resolution has been wrong in a matter of hours. “We cannot wait much longer; If it is not signed immediately, at most tomorrow [for today] we will have to make decisions, ”she assured. His words were echoed by the Government delegation in Galicia, which late yesterday announced that "the contract will be sent to the company tomorrow [for today] first thing in the morning." In the same note we insist that "in the processing of the contracting file there have been no delays." In addition, the families of the victims, who are aware that the mission must be carried out before the window of good weather in the area of the accident ends, will meet today urgently with the Government delegate in Galicia to clarify the lack of coordination between the Ministry and the National Court. “We do not understand this lack of information transfer. We all know that the drop is proof that is under judicial review and it is not only this document sent to the Ciaim (Maritime Accidents and Incidents Investigation Commission), it is that months ago they were required to transfer everything related to this operation and they haven't. We are hallucinated ”, they affirmed before the drift of the case. A single investigated Without a date for key evidence in the case, the Galician ship's skipper remains the only one investigated for the death of a large part of his crew. Only he, his nephew and a third sailor saved their lives that early morning, in which the victims had little room to react. The captain, Juan Padín, assures that the ship sank because the engine stopped suddenly. His nephew supports him, but the third survivor, Ghanaian Samuel Kwesi, blames Padín for refusing to release the nets when a tackle broke down and the ship began to list.
