Touched and sunk. The major exercises of the NATO since the Cold War, which is developed in Norway at the beginning of the month, have had a victim. The frigate of the scandinavian country came out of the north of the scandinavian country —where there were military exercises— when he unexpectedly collided with an oil tanker which caused a massive hole in its side. Attempts to save the huge ship of war to prevent that end at the bottom of the sea lasted for eight days. According to the images of the Administration on the Coast, the boat is now submerged under the waters of the North sea almost in its entirety.
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The accident occurred on the 8th of November in full early morning (at four in the morning, local time), a day after NATO put the finishing touch to the Trident Juncture 2018, which was developed in the northern half of the scandinavian country. The KNM Helge Ingstad, of 5,000 tons, crashed in the middle of the fjord against a tanker with flag maltese that came out of the plant Sture, in the town of Oygarden, just north of Bergen, the second largest city in the country after the capital, Oslo. “Due to the damage, the frigate was transferred to a safe place and the crew was evacuated in a professional Vevobahis manner”, explained the Ministry of Defence through a statement. Aboard the frigate he was traveling with a crew of 137 people were evacuated in emergency. Eight members of the Navy were slightly wounded.
Mild leakage
The Norwegian Army was working several days to try to recover the boat, attaching it to several cables at the coast, explains Reuters. But some of these had been broken, according to the local press. Several specialized media speculated about a “going bad” of the oil. The BBC reported at first that, although the tanker was loaded with crude oil, there were no signs of leakage. But the Coast Guard of Norway has detected leaks of fuel around the boat, although of little relevance. A check dam was placed around the vessel, according to a news portal maritimes. The Management of Coastal also coordinated the cleaning of crude oil poured into the area after the impact.
According to The Washington Post, citing sources from the Associated Press, the frigate was built in Spain in 2009 —specifically by Navantia, in Ferrol (Galicia), according to The Voice of Galicia— and was part of a fleet of the NATO in the Atlantic. The boat was one of the five largest of the Navy norway, and the second most new.
expand photo The frigate norway ‘KNM Helge Ingstad’, after colliding with a tanker to the north of Bergen. HANDOUT REUTERS
