A Norwegian naval officer denies being negligent in an oil tanker collision. The Norwegian naval officer denied negligence in the lead-up to a collision between a warship he commanded and an oil tanker in 2018, in which the military vessel sank.
The armed forces estimated in a 2019 report that replacing the lost Helge Ingstad frigate would cost up to 13 billion crowns ($1.3 billion).The early-morning collision between the Ingstad and the fully loaded Sola TS crude carrier near a major North Sea oil export terminal also caused part of Norway’s petroleum production to be shut down. There was no oil leak from the tanker.
Members of the Ingstad’s 137-strong crew had previously described waking up in the middle of the night as water poured into their cabins and alarms went off as they tried in vain to save the ship, despite suffering only minor injuries.
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At the time, the defendant was the officer in charge of the Ingstad’s bridge.
He acted contrary to good seamanship
prosecutor Benedikte Hoegseth in her opening statement at Hordaland district court.
The officer pleaded not guilty to the charge of negligence. According to his lawyer, Christian Lundin, he believes he was unfairly singled out for blame.
He is looking forward to the start of the case and giving his version of what happened
Lundin told the news agency NTB
Communication recordings between the two vessels show the slow-moving Sola repeatedly asking the faster Ingstad to change course or risk colliding, but the request was denied by the navy ship, which feared getting too close to shore.
According to the commission that investigated the collision, the brightly lit Sola TS may have been difficult to distinguish from the nearby terminal from which it took off, confusing the Ingstad crew.
A tanker video showed sparks flying as the two collided, tearing a gash in the side of the warship that was later recycled as scrap metal. The tanker was only slightly damaged.
The collision revealed flaws in the Norwegian navy’s safety systems, such as inadequate training and risk assessment systems. The defense ministry was later fined 10 million crowns.
The trial is set to run until March 10.
