Norway naval officer found guilty of negligence in oil tanker collision
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Loading... - Blanco Rafael
- 15 May 2023
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On Monday, a Norwegian naval officer was sentenced to a two-month suspended jail sentence for negligence leading up to the collision between the warship he commanded, Helge Ingstad, and an oil tanker in 2018. The crash occurred in the early morning near a major North Sea oil export terminal and led to the sinking of the military vessel. The officer, who was in charge on the bridge of the Ingstad at the time, had pleaded not guilty to negligence. However, the court found him guilty, and the prosecution had asked for a four-month suspended jail sentence.
The collision had caused shutdowns of parts of Norway's petroleum production, but fortunately, there was no leak from the oil tanker. The armed forces had estimated that building a replacement for the lost Helge Ingstad frigate would have cost up to 13 billion crowns ($1.24 billion) in a 2019 report.
The Ingstad crew had earlier described waking up in the middle of the night as water poured into their cabins and alarms went off as they tried to save the ship, but to no avail. They suffered only minor injuries. Recordings of communication between the two vessels showed that the navy ship declined the request to alter its course or face collision, which the slower-moving oil tanker, Sola TS, had made several times.
The collision exposed safety gaps in the Norwegian Navy, including inadequate training and risk assessment systems. The defense ministry paid a fine of 10 million crowns later on. The brightly lit Sola TS may have been difficult to distinguish from the nearby terminal, confusing the Ingstad crew, according to the commission investigating the collision.
The officer's lawyer, Christian Lundin, told reporters that his client was disappointed and took it hard that he alone should take the blame for the accident.
