BALTIC PRINCESS

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Near collision incident investigated and shed light on work overload

The Swedish State Accident Investigation Board has investigated the near collision of the 'Baltic Princess' and the shuttle ferry 'Eskil' (MMSI: 265555080) off Stockholm on Oct 4, 2025. The results now stated that the incident was caused by the 'Eskil' which had departed from Ålstäket towards the Ström Quay in Stockholm In heavy fog and had a problem with an alarm from the starboard side main engine. When the alarm could not be reset, the crew decided to head directly towards the Ström Qiay. In the meantime, the master and deckhand tried to silence the recurring alarm and to restart the main engine. The 'Eskil' thus came far to the port side of the fairway in an unplanned manner. After this, the crew must have discovered that the 'Baltic Princess' was directly in front of the ship. The master of the 'Eskil' then increased speed and turned to starboard. The 'Baltic Princess' had to give way to the ship by first turning to port and then giving hard rudder to starboard. According to the Swedish Maritime Safety Board, the 'Eskil' passed “very close to the bow of the Baltic Princess” at the time of the incident. The cause was considered to be that the master of the 'Eskil' was exposed to an abnormally high workload for a prolonged period due to the sound alarms. Another factor was considered to be the lack of knowledge and familiarity with the technical systems on board. The Swedish Maritime Safety Board believed that this led to attention being diverted from navigation and that the ship therefore drifted unintentionally to port. The recommendation to the operator Djurgårdens Färjetrafik AB was now to ensure that the crews have the knowledge of the engine system that is required to be able to handle different situations that may arise.

Ferry suffered engine issue

On Oct 30, 2024, just before 11 p.m., the 'Baltic Princess',, serving on the route  Turku–Åland–Stockholm, suffered technical problems in the Åland archipelago (Lat. 60.0851; Lng. 20.7857). The ship had to turn around and droppedanchor off the small island Sottunga. The crew managed to fix the problem and the ship resumed its voyage towars Fagarvik shortly after midnight. There were around 400 passengers on board.

Man fined after near collision of yacht with ferry

A 75-year-old man was sentenced by the Åland district court to daily fines for maritime traffic offenses after having come close to a collision with the 'Baltic Princess' with a sailboat in November 2023. He and another person were underway with the sailboat in the dark at Skiftet on their way from Stockholm to Pargas, when the boat encountered problems with both steering and the propeller shaft. At Skiftet the man had left the helm and gone down into the engine room to check the steering and propeller shaft, causing the boat to lose course and be on a collision course with the ferry. When the man returned to the helm, he made a turn towards the same course the 'Baltic Princess' was heading. The ferry had to turn to avoid a collision, and they passed each other with a distance of about 20 meters. The man was sentenced to 50 daily fines of a total of 500 Euros, and he must also pay 80 Euros in victim surcharge.