According to the official WeChat message of Yangjiang Intermediate People’s Court, on August 9, 2024, the Yangjiang Intermediate People’s Court, Guangdong Province, in accordance with the law, publicly pronounced a judgment in the second instance of the case of Xu Jun, Wu Jianliang, Yang Hai, and Chu Naitao, who forced and organized others to work in contravention of rules and regulations, and ruled that the appeal should be rejected and the original judgment be upheld.
According to the official website of the Yangxi County People’s Court of Guangdong Province, on April 17, 2024, the Yangxi County People’s Court of Guangdong Province publicly pronounced judgment at first instance on the case of the defendants Xu Jun, Wu Jianliang, Yang Hai and Chu naitao, who had forced and organized other people to work in violation of rules and regulations and sentenced the defendant Xu Jun to ten years’ fixed-term imprisonment for the crime of forcing and organizing other people to work in violation of rules and regulations. The remaining three defendants were sentenced to seven years to five years and six months of imprisonment respectively. Close relatives of the defendants, deputies to the National People’s Congress, members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and a total of 14 people from all walks of life attended the sentencing.
The Court found that Defendant Xu Jun was the actual controller of the vessel, while Defendants Wu Jianliang, Yang Hai and Chu Naitao were the senior managers of the vessel. At 08:00 on June 30, 2022, ” Fujing 001″ arrived at Yangjiang No.2 large ship tide anchorage for sheltering from the wind. On July 2, 2022, under the influence of typhoon “Siamba”, the vessel “Fuk Jing 001” broke anchor, anchored and had injuries, and then was blown away by the typhoon and could not be controlled, crashing into the wind turbine piles of Shapa wind farm in Yangxi County, resulting in many casualties and missing persons. After the accident, the company that owned the vessel reached a settlement and compensation agreement with the families of the victims and paid compensation.
Overview of Fuk Jing 001
The Court of Second Instance held that the original judgment was clear in its findings of fact, the evidence was solid and sufficient, the conviction was accurate, the sentence was appropriate, and the trial procedure was lawful, and so it made the foregoing ruling in accordance with the law.
It is understood that ” Fuk Jing 001″ is a 2,000 tons full-circle slewing crane ship, with an overall length of 204.5 meters, a beam of 41.6 meters and a depth of 13.5 meters. The ship was built in Poland, finished in July 1983, as a single hull tanker. In 2006, the vessel was converted into a heavy lift vessel and renamed as “ZHEN HUA 20”.
In June 2020, Shenzhen Huajing Marine Science and Technology Co., Ltd. purchased the vessel and then converted it into a non-self-propelled crane vessel and renamed it as “HUA JING 001″ (Panamanian). In July 2021, Shenzhen Huajing handled the import procedures of the vessel; in November, Shenzhen Huajing transferred the vessel to Fujian Huajing without any compensation. In December 2021, Fujian Huajing applied to change the name of the vessel to ” Fu Jing 001″ and obtained the Certificate of Registration of Vessel Ownership. And in April 2022, the vessel obtained the Certificate of Nationality of the People’s Republic of China Vessel.
According to the “Investigation Report on the Wind Accident of Yangjiang “7-2” Crane Vessel “FuJing 001″” issued by the China Maritime Safety Administration on May 31, 2023, the frontal attack of the typhoon was the objective cause of the breakage and sinking of the vessel “FuJing 001” after touching the wind turbine while anchoring. The causes of the heavy casualties included:
Main reason: Xu Jun, the person in actual control of the vessel, and the vessel’s management failed to evacuate the personnel on board the vessel in accordance with the requirements and misrepresented the number of people on board the vessel. After the vessel anchored for the first time, Xu Jun instructed the personnel on board to conceal the actual situation of anchoring and denied the company’s management’s proposal to request external rescue, thus missing the opportunity to rescue the vessel.
Secondary causes: The Yongfu Electric Power Project Department did not supervise the evacuation of personnel in accordance with the requirements of the special plan for typhoon prevention, nor did it conduct a headcount to verify the evacuation of personne. Longyuan Zhenhua Project Department did not arrange for personnel to count all persons at the evacuation point in accordance with the special plan for typhoon prevention. After being informed that the vessel “Fuk Jing 001” did not evacuate all personnel as required, did not report the situation to the Qingzhou Wind Power Project Department and the DRFT Project Department, and did not supervise the rectification of the situation.
Qingzhou Wind Power Project Department and Guangdian Design Project Department did not effectively supervise the evacuation of personnel in accordance with the requirements of the special emergency plan for typhoon prevention and did not grasp the actual number of people on board the vessel. Qingzhou Wind Power failed to report to Guangdong Provincial Wind Power Co., Ltd. and Guangdong Provincial Energy Group Co., Ltd. when it was informed that “FuJing 001” did not evacuate all the personnel according to the requirements.
Liability determination: this is a wind accident, caused by the typhoon, the unpowered crane ship anchored, broken and sunk after touching the fan piles, the relevant enterprises and ships did not evacuate the personnel according to the requirements of the number of people on board, false reporting, the ship went to the anchor after the failure to timely request for assistance, resulting in major casualties. Xu Jun and Jiangsu Huajing were directly responsible for the major casualties on board “Fuk Jing 001”; Yongfu Electric Power, Longyuan Zhenhua, DRFT, Huashen Minneng Joint Venture and Qingzhou Wind Power were responsible for the management.