– The crew did not see the lanterns

The Hearing Panel today presented a preliminary report following the collision between the KNM frigate "Helge Ingstad" and the tanker "Sola TS".

The Commission believes that it is obvious that it was difficult for the frigate's crew to see the tanker's lanterns. This may have led them to not realize that the lights came from a moving ship.

The lanterns signal to other ships where a ship is and what heading it follows.

– The work turns on

The report reveals that the frigate's crew thought that the tanker's fires came from an "immobile object" and that it was not possible to go to starboard for that.

When "Sola TS" came out of the Sturme terminal, it was completely lit.

"The crew worked to clarify the ship to go to sea. As a result, they had occupied the lights on the deck even after leaving the dock," says Ingvild K. Ytrehus at the Havarikommission.

– Did it work with tires even after they left the Sturme terminal?

– Yes, they were working on the preparation even after the berthing of the ship.

– commented on the bridge

The powerful headlights were commented on the bridge on the frigate shortly before the collision.

– At the time of the shift a little before four o'clock, this object was discovered which had a lot of light. It became difficult to distinguish these lights from the lights of the terminal. When we spoke to them from a starboard, they understood that it was impossible because they were going to get into what they thought was a still object. They had talked about it at the time of the takeover, and that was a common sense of understanding, Ytrehus said.

The mighty lights of "Sola TS" may have prevented the frigate's crew from seeing the lanterns.

"It is obvious that it would be very difficult to see and identify the lanterns as long as the tire fires were on, these were the conditions we checked," said Dag S. Liseth, managing director # 39; investigation.

"The use of deck lights by the ship after departure also meant that the KNM crew Helge Ingstad had not seen the sailors of Sola TS," the report says.

– Must consider the use of light

The seawater rules state that vessels must not use light to make lanterns less visible.

– The seawater rules state that the landing rules must be followed from sunset to sunrise. Meanwhile, lights that can be confused with lanterns can not be displayed or reduced or illuminated by the lantern's visibility. In other words, it must be determined whether the lamps used in the dark can be mistaken for lanterns, explains Dag Inge Aarhus, director of communications of the Directorate of the Navy, in an email addressed to BT.

He stressed that management will not comment on the specific findings of the report and that it expresses its opinion in a general way.

The Commission was asked if the frigate was not following the Automatic Identification System (AIS) and the radar.

– AIS and radar could help. But, as far as we understand, they were not able to perceive at an early stage that it was a boat.

I did not know which ship they were talking to

According to the report, neither the fraternity nor the frigate realized that it was "Sola TS" to whom they had spoken during the connection.

Although those carrying the 250-meter long tanker indicated the name of the ship, the frigate did not perceive that she was communicating with "Sola TS" and that the fires were coming from there.

They thought they were communicating with one another, three smaller ships heading north of the ship's slope: Vestbris, Silver Firda, or Seigrunn.

Patrick Adamson, spokesman for the shipping company Tsakos Columbia Shipmanagement, owner of Sola TS, told Aftenposten that the shipping company had not yet read the preliminary report of the Havarikommission.

– Why were Sola TS tire lights still on after the tanker left the terminal?

– I can not answer now. We must return to it after receiving the preliminary report, "said Adamson.

The defense does not know what happened

The chief of defense, Haakon Bruun-Hanssen, said that they were eager to learn from the accident.

– Have you been surprised by the Havarik commission presented?

"We are not surprised that something is wrong, it's a gangster in accidents," Bruun-Hansen said. He believes that the situation of the crew in the interpretation of the situation did not conform to reality.

"We need to consider putting in place mutually controlling procedures, perhaps in a different way than today.

The army still does not know what was happening on the bridge before the accident.

"We were urged not to interview the team before the police arrived at their leisure, we do not have good information on the last ten minutes before the accident." we do not know why they did not slow down, says Nils Stensønes, chief of the navy.

The frigate had not installed so-called VDR, where the sound of the bridge, the connection and several other data was recorded. "Sola TS" had such a box, intended for accident investigations.

According to the Havarikommission, all equipment containing data stored on the frigate has not yet been recovered, and they do not know if it is still readable.