NATO WARSHIP F313

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Norwegian state sued Spanish shipbuilder Navantia for 13.3 billion Norwegian Crowns

Seven years after the 'Helge Ingstad' sank in the Hjelte Fjord, the Norwegian state has sued the Spanish shipbuilder Navantia for 13.3 billion Norwegian Crowns. The Ministry of Defense's amount is based on the price of the new frigate, the lifting of the ship, and a number of deductions.The claim of the Norwegian government attorney is that a safety-critical design defect contributed to the sinking off Øygarden in 2018. The lawsuit points out that the propeller shafts in the ship were hollow, which allowed water to flow between watertight sections of the ship. Similar Spanish frigates built by Navantia have a different, watertight construction. The question is whether the frigate would have been salvaged with the damage it sustained in the collision if the listed construction defects were disregarded, the court ruling stated. The Spanish shipyard has objected that the design error was discovered before the accident, and that the Armed Forces allowed sailing with several known deviations on the frigate, which were not corrected. The shipyard pointed to systematic failure in routines and systems in the Armed Forces and Defense Material. Attorney Ole Kristian Rigland at the Government Attorney's Office stated that the goal was to reach an agreement through mediation. Alternatively, the solution will only come when the case is heard by the district court in the fall.

Commander of watch sentenced again

The commander of the watch on the '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 sentenced to 60 days' probation

The watchman on board the KNM 'Helge Ingstad' has been sentenced to 60 days' probation by the District Court in Bergen on May 15 for the collision with the tanker '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. A representative of Norway's officers' and specialists' union says in a comment that the verdict does not weigh the underlying reasons that were beyond the warden's control.