SOLA TS

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Commander of frigate sentenced again for collision with tanker

The commander of the watch on the frigate 'Helge Ingstad', who was sentenced in the Court of Appeal to a suspended prison sentence has lost the appeal case in the Court of Appeal. He was sentenced to the same penalty as in the district court, i.e. 60 days' suspended imprisonment. According to the defender, the warden will now, together with his lawyers, consider whether the verdict should be appealed to the Supreme Court. The young watch commander was responsible for the frigate's journey when it collided with the 'Sola TS' on Nov 8, 2018, and sank in the rocks close to the Sture terminal in Øygarden. According to the defender, he is blamed for not having oriented himself and examined more closely the luminous object that was towards him, i.e. the 'Sola TS', with which the frigate later collided. As the only one, the watch commander was prosecuted after the Norwegian Armed Forces accepted a corporate penalty of NOK 10 million. - He therefore thinks it is unreasonable that he should be punished when there were a number of systems that failed at the same time, says the defender about the watch commander. The state prosecutors Magne Kvamme Sylta and Benedikte Høgseth who led the case for the prosecution in court. The central point for the prosecution has been to establish the relationship of responsibility in the case, and that in peacetime the same due diligence requirements apply to responsible navigators on board Norwegian Navy vessels as to navigators on board civilian vessels, they wrote on Dec 20, 2023, hoping that thorough judgment we can now put an end to the criminal law case. During the proceedings in the Court of Appeal, the prosecution submitted the same claim as in the district court, a 120-day conditional sentence for unsafe navigation. The fact that the Court of Appeal, like the district court, chose to halve this to 60 days' suspended imprisonment meant little to the state prosecutors.

Watchman of Helge Ingstad sentenced to 60 days' probation

The watchman on board the fregate KNM 'Helge Ingstad' has been sentenced to 60 days' probation by the District Court in Bergen on May 15 for the collision with the 'Sola TS'. The convicted warden was now considering whether to appeal the sentence. In the judgement, emphasis was placed on the fact that he did not follow the radar well enough, and that he also did not follow the VHF traffic. The defense attorney said that the convict believes it was unreasonable to place the entire responsibility for the accident on him, as he, as a lieutenant, was far down in the hierarchy.

Prosecutor demand prison for watchman of frigate for negligence in collision with tanker

According to the Norwegian Public Prosecutor's Office, the watchman on board the Norwegian frigate KNM 'Helge Ingstad', which collided with the 'Sola TS' in November 2018 and subsequently sank, was so negligent that he should be punished with prison. The charges demand that the 33-year-old warden be sentenced to 120 days' probation, based on the last court hearings in the trial, which is taking place at the civil court Hordaland District Court. The warden is the only defendant in the civil trial, in which a verdict is expected shortly.