The lights on the tanker may have violated the regulations

(Bergens Tidende 🙂 The Havarikommission today presented a preliminary report after 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, writes Bergens Tidende.

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 left the Sturme terminal, the bridge was fully 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. Ytrehus had spoken about it at the time of the takeover, and that was a common sense of understanding.

The mighty lights of the 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.

The shipping company will read the report before responding

Patrick Adamson, spokesman for the shipping company Tsakos Columbia Shipmanagement, owner of Sola TS, said the shipping company had not yet received the preliminary report from the Havarikommission.

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

– I can not answer now. We have to come back to this after receiving the preliminary report, "says Adamson in Aftenposten.

– 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 if the lamps you use in the dark can be mistaken for lanterns, says Dag Inge Aarhus, director of communications of the Marine Branch, in an e-mail 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.

I did not know which ship they were talking to

According to the report, the fraternity of the frigate never realized that it was to Sola TS that they had spoken during the connection.

They thought they had communicated with one of the others, three smaller ships heading north on the ship's route: Vestbris, Silver Firda or Seigrunn.

What was really Sola TS, thought that the Navy's Brann crew was an object at rest.

"Only before the collision, they understand that this is not the case," Ytrehus said.

According to her, it is unclear whether KNM officials Helge Ingstad had a clear idea of ​​the ships with which they were communicating, in addition to being one of the three freedoms recorded.

Sun visible on the AIS screen

Sea traffic records presented by Aftenposten show that Sola activated its AIS transmitter and became visible to the other ships on their AIS screens at 03:43.

The AIS is a system that sends information about the identity, position, speed and heading of a ship to other vessels. The AIS survey on KNM Helge Ingstad was in receiver mode, ie it received signals from third parties but did not send signals themselves, confirms the investigator Håvard Bentsen.