Naval officer crashes ship into oil tanker and sinks it – 8 minutes after he took control
The duty commander of a Norwegian Navy frigate which sank after colliding with an oil tanker has been found guilty of negligence by a court in Norway. The officer had been on duty for just eight minutes on November 8, 2018, when the 442-foot KNM Helge Ingstad collided with the Maltese-flagged oil tanker Sola TS.
The smash tore a huge hole in the frigate’s side in a harbour in Sture, north of Bergen.
In total, 137 of the frigate’s crew were evacuated before the vessel sank. Eight people were slightly injured.
The duty commander is the only person to have been prosecuted over the incident.
Prosecutors had claimed negligent navigation was the main reason behind the collision.
NORWAY-NAVY-ACCIDENT© Getty
The Government has announced it will revoke just 600 EU laws rather than the 4,000 pledged, with some Tory MPs considering submitting letters calling for a no-confidence vote. Is this a Brexit betrayal from Rishi Sunak?
The unidentified officer, who denied the charge, was given a 60-day conditional sentence by the Hordaland district court.
Christian Lundin, a lawyer acting for the 33-year-old officer, told Norwegian news agency NTB: “He is disappointed with the outcome.”
The officer had denied criminal guilt, but had admitted he did not do everything right.
He argued it was unfair to be held solely responsible for the shipwreck.
The officer claimed mistakes were also were made on the tanker and at the maritime traffic centre, which was responsible for traffic in the region.
Prosecutors had called for a 120-day suspended sentence, according to an AFP report quoted by Barron’s Magazine.
The same publication reports that Norway’s Accident Investigation Board concluded the collision was largely due to human error.
The loss of the vessel deprived the Norwegian Navy of one of five frigates it had at a time of heightened tensions with Russia.
