VANCOUVER - The officer in charge of a B.C. Ferry when it struck an island and sank in 2006 has pleaded not guilty to charges of criminal negligence causing death.

Jury selection has now begun for the trial of Karl Lilgert, who was the navigation officer on the Queen of the North when it sank after ramming Gil Island on the north B.C. coast.

Passengers Gerald Foisey and Shirley Rosette died in the disaster but their bodies were never found.

Ninety-nine other passengers and crew survived.

Lilgert and a second crew member were the only ones on the bridge when the ship ran aground, and a Transportation Safety Board report found the two failed to make a critical course correction immediately before the crash.

Lilgert’s trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 17. (CTV)

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