HNoMS Helge Ingstad

HNoMS ''Helge Ingstad'' was a of the Royal Norwegian Navy. The vessel was ordered on 23 June 2000 and constructed by Navantia in Spain. The ship was launched on 23 November 2007 and commissioned on 29 November 2009. Named for Helge Ingstad, a Norwegian explorer, the ''Fridjtof Nansen'' class are capable of anti-air, anti-submarine and surface warfare. On 8 November 2018, HNoMS ''Helge Ingstad'' was in collision with the tanker in Norwegian waters just outside Sture Terminal. ''Helge Ingstad'' was severely damaged in the collision and beached. On 13 November 2018, the ship sank where she had run aground and became a constructive total loss.

She was raised in a salvage operation from 27 February 2019 to 3 March 2019. In June 2019 after it was deemed uneconomical to repair her, it was decided that she would be scrapped.

Design and description

The design of the s began in 1997. Based on the design, Izar (later Navantia) of Spain and Lockheed Martin were chosen to construct the vessel. The class is designed for operational flexibility with each ship capable of anti-air, anti-submarine and surface warfare. This was done to allow vessels of the class to operate with more ease in international operations. The ''Fridtjof Nansen''-class frigates measure long overall with a beam of and a draught of . The frigates have a standard displacement of .

The frigates are propelled by one bow thruster and two controllable pitch propellers powered by a CODAG system with one GE LM2500 gas turbine rated at and two Bazán Bravo 12V diesel engines rated at . This gives the frigates a maximum speed of and a range of at . The ships are fitted with a landing pad for one NH90 helicopter.

The class are armed with an octuple launcher for Kongsberg Naval Strike Missiles for surface warfare. The launcher is located amidships, behind the forward superstructure. For anti-air warfare, the ''Fridjtof Nansen''s are equipped with an octuple American Mk 41 vertical launch system for 32 RIM-162 ESSM surface-to-air missiles located ahead of the forward superstructure and aft the single-mounted OTO Melara Super Rapid gun. The ships also mount two twin-mounted torpedo tubes for Sting Ray torpedoes, each mount slotted amidships on either side of the aft superstructure. The frigates also mount depth charges, four Browning M2HB heavy machine guns, four Protector (RWS) (Sea PROTECTOR) and two Long Range Acoustic Devices.

For sensors, the frigates are equipped with a Lockheed Martin AN/SPY-1F 3-D multi-function radar, Reutech RSR 210N air/sea surveillance radar, Safran VIGY 20 electro-optical director, MRS 2000 hull-mounted sonar, Captas MK II V1 active/passive towed sonar and two Mark 82 fire-control radar. The ''Fridjtof Nansen'' class use the Aegis combat system and Link 11 and is fitted for Link 16/22 combat data systems. For signal defence, the class operates the Terma DL-12T decoy launcher and Loki torpedo countermeasure systems. The vessels have a complement of over 120 personnel.

Construction and service

The ship was ordered for construction on 23 June 2000 by Norway and built by the Spanish shipbuilders Navantia at Ferrol, Spain. The vessel was the fourth of the ''Fridtjof Nansen'' class to be constructed, and was laid down on 28 April 2006. Construction had been delayed by disputes over quality control. The frigate was launched on 23 November 2007 and named for the Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad. ''Helge Ingstad'' was commissioned in the Royal Norwegian Navy on 29 September 2009.

From December 2013 to May 2014, ''Helge Ingstad'' was one of the escort ships for merchant vessels carrying chemical weapons from Syria to be destroyed. In August 2017, she joined Exercise Saxon Warrior off the coast of Scotland, escorting the aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy and of the United States Navy.

Collision with oil tanker

On 8 November 2018, while returning from a NATO exercise, she was navigating inshore waters north of Bergen at speeds of up to . Starting from around 03:40 there was a watch handover on board ''Helge Ingstad'', during which three oncoming vessels were noted. After radio communication was established, and upon being asked to alter course to starboard, to avoid the , 112,939 t, Maltese-flagged oil tanker ''Sola TS'', escorted by VSP ''Tenax'', which had just left its berth, ''Helge Ingstad'' believed the vessel calling them to be one of the oncoming vessels they were tracking on radar. Assuming the tanker, slow moving and with its bright deck lights obscuring its navigation lights, to be part of the shore installation, the frigate intended to pass it before altering course moving near her starboard channel margin. By the time they realised their error they were within of ''Sola TS'' and it was too late to avoid a collision. Preben Ottesen, the ship's commanding officer, stated that he was asleep in his cabin when the collision happened, and was in fact awakened by the collision.

The collision caused severe damage to ''Helge Ingstad'', which lost control of engine and steering, with a large breach along her side from the starboard torpedo launchers to the stern. The vessel grounded and continued to take on water, through the propeller shaft and stuffing boxes. Seven sailors were injured in the incident. By late morning she had developed a severe list to starboard with most of the stern submerged. Despite damage control efforts the vessel sank in the early hours of 13 November, with only small sections of the superstructure remaining above water. The failure of the vessel's watertight integrity led to an immediate safety alert to designers Navantia, calling on them to advise operators of similar vessels on any necessary measures to address safety, however, a possible design flaw at Navantia was dismissed, as the accident report points to a succession of human failures. This is the first incident of such scale in the Royal Norwegian Navy since 1994, when was lost after it ran aground.

Unlike ''Helge Ingstad'', ''Sola TS'' only suffered minor damages in its front and was never in danger of sinking. She was able to continue to her destination after the incident. The tanker subsequently sailed to a shipyard in Gdańsk for repairs and was back in regular service by late December 2018.

Following the frigate's sinking, a local fish farming company, which had had to move fish from the area due to spill of diesel oil from the vessel, claimed one million kroner (US$ 116,000) in damages from the Ministry of Defence.

Salvage operations

The Norwegian Navy inspected ''Helge Ingstad'' by the Norwegian Blueye Pioneer underwater drone. Poor weather hampered salvage operations through December 2018; with the planned date to raise the ship being delayed until late January 2019.

The lifting operation began on 26 February 2019. On 27 February 2019, due to weather concerns, the partially raised ship was moved to a location which is better protected from the elements, where further salvage work took place. The ship and the two heavy lift vessels (''Rambiz'' and ''Gulliver'') reached the Semco Maritime yard at Hanøytangen on 28 February 2019. Boarding parties consisting of some 300 people, including around 100 members of ''Helge Ingstad''s original crew, assisted in pumping out the remaining water so that the ship could be placed on a barge and fully salvaged. ''Helge Ingstad'' was successfully placed on ''Boa barge 33'' on 2 March 2019 and arrived at the Haakonsvern naval base on 3 March 2019, for removal of spare parts and sensitive equipment.

On 14 May 2019 it was reported the cost of repairing ''Helge Ingstad'' would exceed US$1.4 billion, according to the Norwegian Armed Forces, implying that it would be nearly three times cheaper to build a new ship. However, restarting production for just one ship could result in a disproportionally high per-ship cost. In January 2021, the Norwegian government signed a (almost $7 million) contract with Norscrap West for the ship's scrapping. The scrapping process was used to learn how to scrap the other ''Fridtjof Nansen''-class vessels in the future.

Investigation and filing of charges

The Norwegian Safety Investigation Authority (NSIA) and the Defence Accident Investigation Board Norway (DAIBN) immediately began a joint investigation, with the involvement of the Marine Safety Investigation Unit of Malta. On 29 November 2018 the AIBN published their preliminary accident report together with two interim safety recommendations. It recommended that the Norwegian military authorities investigate the findings of the preliminary report with a view to implementing any necessary safety measures, and that the shipbuilder Navantia investigate relevant aspects of the design of the frigate and whether other ships might be similarly affected. The watertight condition of the ship was supposedly guaranteed by the 13 watertight bulkheads. Seven compartments were damaged as a result of the collision but initially the ship remained afloat. No one intervened to break the chain of errors. If the commander had observed International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGS) the collision would not have occurred.

The second accident report by the Norwegian Safety Investigation Authority (''Statens Havarikommisjon'') delivered on the 21 April 2021 did exonerate Navantia: the ship suffered damage "above that for which it was designed", and did not make any recommendations for the ship builder. The report mentioned that "If the crew had been better trained, they would have had a better understanding of how to save the ship", and "They didn't understand that various systems were still functioning", noting that the crew evacuated the ship without closing doors, hatches, and other openings that would have maintained stability and buoyancy, avoiding the capsizing and sinking of the vessel, and saving the ship from total loss.

Charges were filed by the Director of Public Prosecutions in May 2022 against the navigator-in-charge (''ansvarshavende navigatør'') and officer of the watch (''vaktleder'') on the frigate's bridge at the time of the collision.https://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/i/JxeRo6/helge-ingstad-havariet-fregattens-vaktsjef-tiltalt-for-uaktsomhet. Vg.no. Retrieved 6 May 2022

References

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External links

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Timeline of incident and recovery

Animation with radio recordings

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helge Ingstad (F313)
2007 ships
Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates
Ships built in Spain
Maritime incidents in 2018
November 2018 events in Europe
Non-combat naval accidents