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Sons launch fresh appeal to resolve Courtenay Allan's death Janet Porter - Tuesday 5 August 2008 CREW members and guests onboard the OOCL Montreal at the time Courtenay Allan was killed in a freak accident are still being traced by his three sons, who hope an investigation into their father's death is approaching a conclusion. Five years after Mr Allan died, his family still has no clear answers as to exactly what happened. But his sons are keeping up pressure on Hong Kong container line OOCL, with a double-page spread in the Mail on Sunday at the weekend documenting the tragedy and subsequent events. A French inquiry into the accident, which occurred when Mr Allan fell down an elevator shaft from the bridge of the OOCL Montreal after the door opened before the lift car had arrived, is thought to be almost finished. Hayden Allan, youngest son of the former OOCL transatlantic trades director, told Lloyd's List this week that the French investigating judge is expected to issue his findings in the autumn. Those will be passed on to the prosecutor's office and will also enable the UK inquest to resume. But some of those onboard the OOCL Montreal, which was on its maiden voyage and berthed in Le Havre at the time of the accident, have not yet come forward. So far, the sons have been unable to contact two former members of the crew, Oisin McCarron and Bryan Keegan, and have posted their names on a website documenting the investigation. They are also hoping to speak to the master of the OOCL Montreal, David Roger Llewellyn, as well as guests attending a customer reception on the ship when Mr Allan was fatally injured. OOCL has never released to the family the names of those onboard at the time of the incident. OOCL said in a statement that, for the past five years, it had co-operated fully with all the separate investigations into the cause of the accident, one at its own instigation, and one by the Hong Kong Government Marine Department, "and will continue to co-operate with any future investigations". A recent step forward in France came when the French investigating judge made the company part of the official examination. For the first time, OOCL will have access to all the information that has been gathered by all the parties involved, including the shipbuilder and various contractors. In the Mail on Sunday article, Mr Allan's sons said an independent report commissioned by them concluded that the incident had most likely been caused by human intervention, with no evidence to suggest the lift system was faulty. "The door lock receptor may have been subjected to an unauthorised out-of-design modification," the lift expert said.
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