Difficult inside KNM Helge Ingstad

KNM Helge Ingstad, Tear, Starboard , FrigateCloseup of the tear in the starboard side of KNM Helge Ingstad. Photo: Helge Ingstad

Difficult to investigate inside KNM Helge Ingstad

The police maintain the cordoning off of the area surrounding KNM Helge Ingstad until Friday. The Frigate is so lopsided that it is difficult to investigate inside.

 

– The investigation is still in the first phase, and it is far too early to say something qualified about the cause of the collision, The Police writes in a press release on Thursday afternoon.

The Norwegian police are well underway with the technical and tactical investigation and carry out questioning of the crews from both of the involved vessels. The wrecked frigate lies heavily lopsided halfway underwater, and the police expect the investigation to last for a long time.

– It’s a lot of material to be collected and reviewed as well as many interrogations to be carried out. As long as the frigate lays as it does presently, it is also demanding to carry out technical investigations inside the vessel, the press statement states.

The Frigate KNM Helge Ingstad, after colliding with the fully loaded tanker Sola, was wrecked at 4 am on Thursday. Eight of the crew were slightly injured in the collision, and the military ship is now run ashore, bolted to the shoreline to avoid sinking.

When the two ships collided, the Frigate may have been virtually invisible on the radar, says former Frigate Commander, Jacob Børresen, to the national newspaper Dagbladet.

Stealthy

– The Frigates are built according to the Stealth principle, a construction form that makes them very difficult to detect by radar. In addition, these Frigates, unlike any other vessel of over 300 metric ton, are not required to use a satellite-based system. If this system was turned off, the combination could lead to that Frigate was invisible to the tanker, he explains.

According to the Oslo based newspaper, Aftenposten, the Frigate appeared on the ASL map a few minutes after the collision, indicating that the system was, indeed, turned off during the incident.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today

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