A Norwegian watch officer was found guilty and sentenced to a two-month suspended jail sentence for negligence leading up to a collision between a warship he navigated and a Tsakos aframax tanker in which the military vessel sank.
Areport from Norway’s Accident Investigation Board found that a significant share of the fault for the collision lay with the Ingstad’s bridge team, which believed that the oncoming tanker was a fixed object. Despite extensive attempts at communication between the tanker, the VTS center and the Ingstad, the frigate’s bridge team did not attempt to alter course until it was too late.
"The defendant could and should have acted differently to prevent the collision", prosecutor Magne Kvamme Sylta told NRK at the outset of the trial.
As explained, the prosecution sought a 120-day jail sentence and two years of probation for the officer. The court decided to convict him, but handed down a lighter sentence of 60 days of probation.
"This collision would never have occurred if a more experienced duty chief had been on the bridge that night", former training officer Cato Rasmussen told NRK.
As informed, the new precedent of a civilian prosecutorial intervention into a military justice case has strained civil-military relations in Norway; the head of the Norwegian Navy, Rune Andersen, said during the trial that his branch of the armed forces will have to think carefully about how much it will cooperate with the Norwegian police going forward.
Source: Safety4se
