Norway naval officer found guilty of negligence in oil tanker collision

A Norwegian naval officer was found guilty on Monday and sentenced to a two-month suspended jail sentence for negligence leading up to the 2018 collision between a warship he commanded and an oil tanker in which the military vessel sank.

Building a replacement for the lost Helge Ingstad frigate would have cost up to 13 billion crowns (USD 1.24 billion), the armed forces estimated in a 2019 report.

The early-morning crash between the Helge Ingstad and the fully loaded Sola TS crude carrier near a major North Sea oil export terminal also triggered shutdowns of parts of Norway’s petroleum production. There was no leak from the oil tanker.

The defendant was the officer in charge on the bridge of Helge Ingstad at the time. He had pleaded not guilty to negligence. He believes he was unfairly singled out for blame, his lawyer Christian Lundin has said.

The prosecution had asked for a four-month suspended jail sentence.

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