COPENHAGEN (AP) — The commanding officer who was on watch on a Norwegian Navy frigate that sank after colliding with an oil tanker in 2018 was found guilty of negligence in a Norwegian court Monday.
The Hordaland district court imposed a 60-day suspended sentence on the officer, who was not identified. He denied the accusations.
“He is disappointed with the result,” the 33-year-old’s lawyer, Christian Lundin, told the Norwegian news agency NTB.
The officer had been on duty for eight minutes on November 8, 2018 when the 134-meter (442-foot) KNM Helge Ingstad collided with the Maltese-flagged oil tanker Sola TS. The impact tore a large hole in the frigate’s hull into a fjord at Sture, north of Bergen.
The frigate’s 137 crew members were evacuated before the ship sank. Eight people suffered minor injuries.
The lair commander was the only person prosecuted for the incident. The prosecution claimed that the main reason for the collision was negligent navigation.
The officer denied any criminal responsibility, although he admitted that he had not done everything right. However, he considered it unfair that he was held responsible for the shipwreck alone and said that the oil tanker and the maritime traffic center, responsible for traffic in the area, had also made mistakes.
The frigate has been refloated and dismantled as repairs were deemed too costly. The tanker suffered only light damage in the crash.
Twitt Navigation Ltd., the tanker’s owner, agreed in February 2022 to pay 235 million kroner ($22 million) to the Norwegian state in a settlement related to the collision.
