Norweigen Frigate Collides with Tanker, Runs Aground to Avoid Sinking in Deeper Water, Again No AIS

Wrecked Norwegian navy frigate “KNM Helge Ingstad” is seen in this Norwegian Coastal Administration handout picture in Oygarden, Norway, November 13, 2018. Jakob Ostheim/Norwegian Coastal Administration/Handout vis REUTERS

As you probably know by now, a Norwegian frigate was involved in a collision with a much bigger tanker. The Captain chose to run the frigate aground in hopes of preventing it from sinking. Fortunately only eight people were injured and remarkably there were not deaths.

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The frigate Helge Ingstad was inbound at 17 knots and the tanker Solas had gotten underway shortly before and was outbound at 7 knots.

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The frigate is a bit smaller than the US Navy destroyers Fitzgerald and John S. McCain, damaged in collisions in 2017, but there was a similarity to these earlier collisions. None of the three ships had its Automatic Identification System (AIS) activated.

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As reported by Defense News, in this case, failure to energize the AIS “…seems to have delayed recognition by central control (Vessel Traffic System–Chuck) and the other ships in the area that Ingstad was inbound and heading into danger…”

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OK, I can understand turning off your AIS when in open sea, in an attempt to provide a degree of operational security, but if you are in congested waters there is no point. In fact you could use a bogus AIS or some kind of generic AIS, but if you are going to moor within hours in a city or if you have just gotten underway, it buys you nothing.

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Turning on the AIS ought to be on every Special Sea Detail checklist.