An inquest has opened into the deaths of two of the five men who drowned when a fishing boat sank 14 years ago ‘a day before an exercise involving a NATO submarine’ was due to take place.
On January 15 2004, Eyves Gloaguen, Pascal Le Floch, George Lematayer, Patrick Glogauen, and Eric Guillament all lost their lives when the Bugalen Breizh, sank 14 miles off the Lizard Peninsula near Cornwall.
But only the bodies of Mr Gloaguen, 45, and Mr Le Floch, 49, were recovered to enable an inquest to take place into their deaths.
The families of the victims have been fighting for answers ever since the tragedy and have previously claimed that a NATO submarine involving in a military training exercise was responsible.
A picture taken on July 13, 2004 shows the wreckage of French trawler ‘Bugaled Breizh’
Newlyn Village Harbor during low tide. Boats had taken shelter here when conditions worsened
Acting Senior Coroner Andrew Cox opened the hearing today and spent most of the morning discussing legal arguments with the Ministry of Defence.
Mr Cox said: ‘There are a lot of conspiracy theories around this case and I want to work hard to dispel as many of these as possible.’
He confirmed the cause of death for both men was drowning before he spent the rest of the morning discussing with a legal representative of the Ministry of Defence, Mr Richard Wheeler, about which comments should be redacted from witness statements.
No family members attended the first day of the inquest, but two members of the French press were in attendance – with the aim of making a podcast about the incident.
Families of the crew members have claimed in the past that a submarine was responsible, however that claim has been denied by British authorities and rejected by French courts.
The trawler went down 14 miles off the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall, and relatives believe that a submarine became snagged in its nets.
The sinking happened a day before Nato military exercises officially began in the area.
At a pre-inquest hearing, it was said that the full inquest would consider four points.
The trawler went down 14 miles off the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall (pictured), and relatives believe that a submarine became snagged in its nets
The four points are whether a submarine was involved, if there had been a fishing accident, had there been contact with another surface vessel, or if there was another reason.
During the hearing the coroner is expected to hear evidence that includes witness accounts from other fishermen, the crew of a Navy search and rescue helicopter and coastguards as well as legal and technical reports prepared for court proceedings in France.
Several fisherman in the area at the time told the authorities they had seen a submarine on the surface.
Following the incident, French fisherman Serge Cossec gave evidence to his local authorities and a report they wrote was made available to the inquest.
In the report, Serge said how he had been fishing alongside the Bugaled Breizh and both boats had taken shelter in Newlyn, Cornwall, when conditions worsened.
The son of a missing sailor of the sunken Bugaled Breizh ship, Thierry Lemetayer, speaks on May 13, 2015 at the appeals court in the western French city of Rennes after deliberation
He noted that the Bugaled Breizh was in good condition with no obvious defects, and the two boats returned to the fishing area when the weather improved.
While fishing the two boats communicated over radio and discussed their plans, before heading in opposite directions.
The next Serge heard from the Bugaled Breizh was in the form of a distress call, when skipper Eyves said: ‘Come quickly, I’m capsizing.’
When Serge asked Eyves to repeat himself, the skipper simply said: ‘I’m capsizing, come quickly’ and Serge noted he had an element of panic in his voice.
He later said that Eyves was a competent fisherman who wouldn’t take unnecessary risks, and that if he didn’t mention why the ship was sinking then he probably didn’t know why.
After the distress call, Serge instructed his crew to bring up the trawling nets – a process which takes about twenty minutes – and they then went to the last known site of the Bugaled Breizh.
Serge said that from the beginning of the distress call to the point where he lost contact was less than a minute.
When they arrived at the last known location of the doomed ship, they found an ‘expanse’ of diesel and oil, and some floating debris.
Serge said: ‘I located a life raft, we approached it, it was empty.
‘I came back towards the South West heading for the wreck. I saw another life raft but it was empty.
‘We heard that the English had recovered two bodies.’
After his initial report, which was written while at sea, Serge wrote a second statement.
In it, he said that his first mate had checked the radar at the time of the incident which showed there was not another vessel within a six mile radius.
He also added that when he returned to the wreck he had seen a submarine in the area.
He said: ‘There was a submarine on the surface. I did not see an identification mark. I tried to approach it twice without success.
‘It went away and I don’t know if it was trying to slip away or if it was following precise search directions.’
A statement from Marc Cariou, a professional fisherman on-board the Eridan which also responded to the distress signal, was also read out.
He said: ‘We found a spill of diesel oil, it was enormous.
‘There was a submarine on the surface, I noticed that it kept out the way and we tried to approach it.
‘We did not see it again.’
A statement from another fisherman, Frederic Stephan, was also read out.
He said: ‘We saw a submarine on the surface, we tried to approach it but we were not able to. I did not see anything notable about this submersible.
‘I was of the impression there was a flag on the side, I did not see it.
‘It did not seem to me that it was going to hang about on the scene, this seemed to me because there were so many vessels on the scene it would have been difficult for it to manoeuvre.’
The inquest in Truro continues and is scheduled to last three weeks.
