The Norwegian military released a video footage of the damage to the frigate Helge Ingstad, which sank last month after colliding with a merchant tanker on the approaches to Bergen, Norway.
Namely, a Norwegian Navy EOD diving team published footage from the sunk vessel while trying to remove missile launchers from her foredeck. The Norwegian Armed Forces firstly used underwater drone, usually used for hull inspections of shipping and offshore vessels to help during the marine salvage operations of the wrecked frigate KNM Helge Ingstad.
The Salvage Divers, after removing all the weapons, are preparing to raise the vessel and bring it on the surface to the Haakonsvern naval base near Bergen.
The heavy lift vessel Rambiz has begun the work of pulling chains beneath the Ingstad’s hull, which will be used to hoist her intact from the water so that she may be placed onto a semisubmersible barge for transport.
The salvage project was delayed because of weather conditions and the team expects to resume its task as soon as conditions improve. Because of the weather delays, the Ingstad will not be raised until after Christmas, but the team hopes to complete the work as soon as it can, given the risk of further damage or movement of the wreck over time.
According to the preliminary report, the collision is thought to have been caused by a chain of human errors. On November 8, seven people were slightly injured after the Norwegian frigate ‘KNM Helge Ingstad’ collided with the Maltese-flagged oil tanker ‘Sola TS’ off Bergen.
According to the Accident Investigation Board Norway, the Ingstad’s bridge team maintained the mistaken impression that the tanker was a fixed object as range decreased, despite multiple warnings from the Sola TS and the local VTS station.
