Just realised I may have been contributing to the crash issues.:$
I thought I was using the patched version but a double check showed an incorrect timestamp on the shiparch.ini file(was 1 Dec 06). After downloading and installing the mod again, the shiparch.ini had the correct date(3 Dec).
Apologies to Wolfpack and Igiss if my lack of attention caused problems.
Edit: The server has been noticed to crash twice more the moment a player quit the server while in space.