Collision: The MV Danio ran aground in the Farne Islands (Picture: Alan Hewitt)

A captain ran his cargo ship aground after plotting a course that ignored the British land mass, an exposé has revealed.

Tadeusz Dudek, the Polish skipper of the MV Danio, forgot about England when he plotted a course from Scotland to Belgium, according to accident investigators.

It sparked fears of an environmental disaster when it crashed into the Farne Islands, off the Northumberland coast in March.

Coastguard surveyor Alan Thompson told the BBC’s Inside Out programme: ‘They basically said, “Well, OK, we’re sailing from Perth and we’re going to Antwerp and we’ll draw a line and we’ll go the quickest way possible”.’




The 80m (260ft) vessel was using an unapproved electronic chart plotter ‘a bit like your GPS for the car’, he added.

Its ‘very basic bridge watch alarm’ was also switched off, Mr Thompson said.

Capt Dudek – who has since been sacked – told the BBC his first mate was probably asleep at the time of the crash and failed to see a lighthouse. The stricken ship was eventually towed away without spilling fuel. Prosecutors have yet to decide if anyone will face charges.