Polaris Shipping insists it is not against a South Korean government decision to search for the wreck of the sunken VLOC Stellar Daisy despite claims from a group representing victims of the disaster.
It was hoped the search would uncover clues as to why the 266,000-dwt Stellar Daisy (built 1993) suffered catastrophic structural failure while fully laden with a cargo of iron ore heading from Brazil to China in March last year.
The search had been approved by South Korean president Moon Jae In. It is also hoped the voyage data recorder could be recovered, helping to uncover why the ship sank.
The decision was made after lobbying from families of the 22 crew that died in the accident.
But in an online response to the government decision on a government website a Polaris official said there is no likelihood of finding survivors.
He added there are no guarantees the wreck at a depth of 3,000 metres could be found.
He said that there are very few examples of successful deep sea wreck searches.
“I strongly urge you to reconsider the Stellar Daisy deep sea search decision,” he said.
However Polaris said the comments were made by a former employee of the company and does not represent the views of the South Korean company.
In a statement to TradeWinds Polaris said: "It should be clearly noted that the company has not exercised any control over him to influence his opinion, thus his opinion should be strictly regarded as personal only. In fact, the company has not opposed the Government’s plan for the search and the company has no reason whatsoever to do so."
The ship’s flag state the Marshall Islands is also yet to release an official investigation into the tragedy.
This story was updated following comments made by Polaris.
