A container ship captain pleaded not guilty Monday to a charge of operating a vessel under the influence of alcohol, five days after he allegedly captained a 1,094-foot vessel from Everett to Seattle with a blood alcohol content far above the legal limit, court records show.
The legal limit for boating under the influence is 0.08% in Washington state. Testing before the captain's arrest showed his blood alcohol content at three times that legal limit.
Oleh Danylin, 48, of Ukraine, was booked Wednesday into King County Jail and released the next day on his own recognizance after agreeing to turn in his passport to the Coast Guard and not operate any vessel, according to a probable cause statement filed Thursday in King County District Court.
A King County District Court judge determined Monday there was probable cause to charge Danylin with the gross misdemeanor.
A pilot aboard the container ship MSC Jubilee IX on Wednesday morning smelled a strong odor of alcohol coming off Danylin, who was tasked with navigating the vessel and directing its crew as the ship traveled south along the Puget Sound. The pilot called the Coast Guard shortly before 10 a.m. to report Danylin might be drunk, according to the probable cause statement.
Coast Guard personnel boarded the ship, which bore Liberia’s national flag, about 30 minutes later, shortly after it arrived at a West Seattle terminal. One of the investigators reported having to ask Danylin several times to speak with them before he moved, court records show.
Danylin told investigators he had used mouthwash 10 minutes before they arrived, but denied drinking alcohol, which he said was against his employer’s rules. He agreed to perform a field sobriety test, but performed “so poorly,” according to the probable cause statement, that investigators told him to stop before he could finish the test, for his own safety.
Danylin agreed to take a chemical breath test by the Coast Guard that registered a 0.24% blood alcohol content, according to court documents. He agreed to take two more breath tests administered by a Washington State Patrol investigator shortly before 2 p.m. at the agency’s office in Seattle’s Portage Bay neighborhood. Both tests registered a 0.25% blood alcohol content, court records show.
Coast Guard officials arrested Danylin and took him to King County Jail. He agreed to pay a $1,000 civil penalty to the agency and is scheduled to have a pretrial hearing Wednesday, according to court records and Casey McNerthney, spokesperson for the King County prosecuting attorney’s office.
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