How is it possible that the Norwegian frigate Helge Ingstad collided with the Aframax tanker Sola TS in a fjord near a major oil terminal? The frigate is much smaller, significantly faster and far more maneuverable than the 113,00 DWT tanker laden with a full cargo of crude oil. Why did the naval officers on the frigate fail to avoid a collision?
It is too early to say. “This was a very serious accident and [the authorities] need the time to investigate,” said John Erik Hagen, regional director of the Norwegian Coastal Administration’s western region.
That being said, Norwegian sources report that the Norwegian warship was repeatedly warned of its collision course with a Maltese oil tanker before the two ships hit each other around 4AM last Thursday. The two ships were reported to have seen each other and to have followed communication protocols on an open channel. After receiving collision warnings from both the tanker Sola TS and the Coastal Maritime Traffic Center Fedje VTS. The frigate responded, “We have everything under control.”
Following the collision, the frigate was intentionally grounded to prevent it from sinking. Helge Ingstad apparently only turned on her Automatic Identification System (AIS) transporter after the mishap had occurred.
As serious as the collision was, it could have been far worse. The collision between a weapons-laden warship and a fully loaded oil tanker could have potentially been catastrophic.
RTFM, maybe?
For naval officers, notice that there’s this thing called “CPA” that is available on a plethora of displays. Our itsy-bitsy boat does it via radar, AIS and with a few pushes of buttons it becomes hard to ignore the computational results.
Once you’ve read the manual, you can then know that the lines emanating from targets are actually something called “vectors,” that show the future position of other vessels as well as own.
It’s really all very cool and quite career-saving. Skip polishing some brass, RTFM.
I should add, in the market I work in it’s a routine occurrence for skippers to ground boats despite rather fanatical efforts to make them aware of charts on MFDs and to diligently explain how with a few button-presses on a cyclic basis there is no excuse for doing what in the aviation world is termed a “controlled flight into the ground.”
Surely naval officers are better than credit card captains? Where’s the pride?
As with our little dinky vessels I look at Helge Ingstad and wonder “how much lost time in service and how much money is it going to take to get her working again,” and as always the unanswerable “why?”
Sounds like Norway needs to take a cue from the US Navy and figure out why people are ignoring other traffic.
On Veterans Day and the Centenary of WW I it’s especially meaningful to be reminded that soldiers, sailors and airmen face dangers everyday and everywhere they serve.