A 46-year-old Norwegian cargo ship sank off Scania
The ship went down at 1.30 on Friday night, duty officer Allan Mortensen at the Armed Forces’ Operations Center in Denmark informs Ritzau.
Five Norwegians were picked up from the ship in a helicopter and the plane to Sweden on Thursday, the Danish defense has announced on Twitter.
The Accident Investigation Board Norway is involved and has a team that will look at the accident and try to map the cause and see if there are learning points, department director Dag Sverre Liseth informs TU.
– It will be an ordinary investigation, where we talk to those involved, witnesses, the shipping company and other actors, says Liseth to TU.
The ship was built at Scheepswerf Voorwarts BV in the Netherlands in 1976 and the former Bulk Viking. It is a self-unloading bulk carrier of 125o gross tonnes, registered in the Norwegian International Ship Register (NIS) with Italian RINA as classification company.
Gets report
The Norwegian Maritime Directorate is now awaiting an accident report from the shipping company.
– The shipping company has 72 hours to submit a report, but it tends to happen quite quickly. We will then decide what we need, says communications director Dag Inge Aarhus to TU.
A representative from the shipping company tells TU that he does not have time to talk to the pressure on Friday morning.
According to Fosenfrakt’s website, the company has two ships, MS Bjugnfjord and MS Bjugnholm (built in 1971 in Germany).
The captain at Bjugnholm tells TU that he does not know what Bjugnfjord carried, but that the bulk carriers take all possible loose loads such as stone, crushed stone, gravel, road salt, building materials for concrete and asphalt. Both ships are equipped with self-unloaders, ie an excavator that stands on a movable crossbeam.
Dramatic
Three of the crew went in a lifeboat and were picked up by helicopter, while two were rescued from the ship by helicopter.
– The Norwegian Maritime Administration’s helicopter is there and picks up people. It is in the middle of the strait, said Fredrik Strömbäck, spokesman for the Swedish Maritime Administration Sydsvenskan Thursday.
He informed NTB that it was MS Bjugnfjord, a 65 meter long cargo vessel.
Since the ship is lost, it is limited what the Norwegian Maritime Directorate can anticipate from technical investigations to find out what is missing from the vessel.
Officer on duty at the Armed Forces’ Operations Center in Denmark, Allan Mortensen, stated that a Danish and two Swedish helicopters have been deployed, and the frigate Niels Juel is also on its way.
No serious injuries
The alarm went off just before 8 pm, and the vessel had five on board. By 10.30pm, they were all rescued by the ship, according to Strömbäck.
– This has happened in Danish waters, but we participate by helicopter and have another on standby. Five people have been winched up, said Daniel Ståleby, assistant rescue leader at the Swedish sea and air rescue center to Aftonbladet.
Two were hoisted up from the vessel and three from a lifeboat, according to Ståleby.
According to Emma Nykvist, who is the assistant rescue leader, no one has been seriously injured.
“As far as we know, they are fine, and are in good condition according to the conditions,” she told Sydsvenskan.
Bad weather
Strömbäck on Thursday that there was a north wind of around 12 meters per second in the area.
– It is of course tough conditions, but the crews are trained for it, he said.
To Ritzau, Mortensen from the Defense Operations Center said that on Thursday evening it has not been possible to get the crew from the ship to speak to get clarity on what has happened. It will probably happen on Friday, according to him.
The reason why the ship overturned seems to be that the cargo has overturned or moved.
– It has been very bad weather, with strong winds and waves, something that has caused the load shift, Nykvist told Sydsvenskan.
Surveys Friday
The Danish frigate, together with a ship from the Swedish Coast Guard, kept an eye on the ship through the night, to see if anything should leak out, and to make sure that no one else sailed past the ship.
Mortensen says on Friday morning that all ships are advised to stay away from the area, to avoid them sailing past the wreck. He said earlier that there was a significant risk that the ship sank and that therefore no attempt was made to blur it.
The environmental ship Mette Miljø is on its way from Frederikshavn and is expected to arrive when it gets light on Friday. The ship is last with contaminated soil, and was on its way from Copenhagen to Randers.